Gunmen from the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab killed at least eight officers in a raid on a police station near the capital, police and the militants said on Saturday.
"Al Shabaab killed eight of my colleagues and took three of our cars," Major Abdikadir Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters from Afgoi. Al Shabaab, which wants to topple the Western-backed government in Mogadishu, claimed responsibility for the raid on Afgoi town, 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.