Kenya's military said on Wednesday, May 25 it had killed 21 al Shabaab fighters in Somalia where its troops are trying to defeat the militant Islamist group that has often struck civilian targets inside Kenya, Reuters reports.

Kenyan troops, which are in Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) deployment, struck a group of al Shabaab fighters in the west of the country, near the Kenyan border, David Obonyo, spokesman for Kenya Defence Forces, said in a statement.

Al Shabaab spokesman Abdiasis abu Musab said its fighters had killed five soldiers, wounded eight and burnt one military vehicle in the fighting. The reports could not be independently verified, Reuters says.

Obonyo said the Kenyan troops suffered no casualties.

Al Shabaab, a hardline Islamist group, ruled large parts of Somalia until 2011, when it was driven out of Mogadishu by AU and Somali troops. It still control some rural areas and carries out frequent attacks in the capital and other areas in its attempt to dislodge the Western-backed government.