Somali troops killed in checkpoint ambush

gadishu - Gunmen attacked a Somali military checkpoint on Thursday killing five troops and a woman, a government official and witnesses said.The checkpoint is just south of Mogadishu, on the main road to the town of Afgoye and southern Somalia.The government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the woman was caught in the fire as the gunmen attacked the government checkpoint. "Five government soldiers were killed," he said.The official said the checkpoint was reinforced and a massive sweep of the area was launched to hunt the attackers."The five bodies were collected by members of the TFG forces who came to back up the attacked soldiers," said Abdi Mohamud, an eyewitness.He said several people had been arrested as troops combed the area .There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Islamist insurgents have been attacking government forces and the Ethiopian and African Union (AU) troops supporting them.Ethiopia came to the rescue of the embattled transitional Somali government in late 2006 and defeated a fundamentalist Islamic militia which briefly controlled large parts of the Horn of Africa country.The militia's political leadership has largely regrouped in neighbouring Eritrea but its armed wing has waged a bruising guerrilla war against the government, mainly in Mogadishu.The gunmen made away with the soldiers' weapons and some money which the soldiers had been collecting from the checkpoint, which served as a tax collection point for the ministry of transport and Mogadishu authorities.