Fight­ing in south So­ma­lia be­tween al Shabaab mil­i­tants and gov­ern­ment forces killed at least 24 peo­ple, while a rebel at­tack in the cap­i­tal killed three Trans­port Min­istry work­ers and a law­maker, of­fi­cials and the group said on Sat­ur­day.

Al Shabaab launched an at­tack on gov­ern­ment troops late on Fri­day in the Awdigle dis­trict and Mubarak vil­lage in the Lower Sha­belle re­gion, south of the cap­i­tal Mo­gadishu. Clashes lasted un­til early Sat­ur­day and killed at least two dozen peo­ple, res­i­dents said.

In two gun at­tacks in the cap­i­tal, the group, which wants to top­ple the West­ern-backed gov­ern­ment, killed three peo­ple work­ing for the Trans­port Min­istry and in an­other as­sault shot dead a law­maker, po­lice and a par­lia­men­tar­ian said.

Al Shabaab said it was be­hind the at­tacks in the south and in Mo­gag­ishu. “We shall con­tinue killing the en­e­mies,” Sheikh Ab­di­a­sis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions spokesman, told Reuters.

The African Union’s AMI­SOM peace­keep­ing force and So­mali sol­diers pushed al Shabaab into smaller pock­ets of ter­ri­tory dur­ing an of­fen­sive launched last year, but the group still launches reg­u­lar bomb and gun at­tacks.

“We did not sleep last night be­cause they ex­changed shells and gun­fire through­out the night,” res­i­dent Afrah Hus­sein told Reuters from Awdigle dis­trict, adding he had counted 17 dead but could not say if they were sol­diers or mil­i­tants.

In Mubarak, a res­i­dent saw seven killed from both sides. Al Shabaab said 25 sol­diers were killed in the south. Lower Sha­belle Gov­er­nor Ab­dikadir Mo­hamed Sidi told Reuters at least 40 rebels died, along­side Colonel Dahir Shekaal, the com­man­der of gov­ern­ment forces in Awdigle.

Al Shabaab and of­fi­cials of­ten given con­flict­ing fig­ures. In the at­tack in Mo­gadishu, po­lice said the three Trans­port Min­istry work­ers were killed when al Shabaab gun­men blocked their car and sprayed them with bul­lets.

Sep­a­rately, one law­maker was killed and an­other was wounded in Mo­gadishu when the mil­i­tant group used a sim­i­lar tac­tic.

Al­though diplo­mats say al Shabaab has been pushed mainly into ar­eas in the Gal­gala hills in the north and Juba Val­ley in the south, the group has con­tin­ued to launch strikes in the cap­i­tal Mo­gadishu and on So­mali and AMI­SOM forces.