May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Somalia’s al-Shabaab group vowed to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces as the Horn of Africa nation announced a heightened state of alert aimed at preventing retaliation by the Islamic militants.At least seven al-Shabaab fighters were killed late yesterday during several hours of “fierce fighting” with soldiers in Baladweyne, in the Hiran region, Mohamed Nor Agajof, commander of the government forces involved, said today by phone. A senior al-Shabaab fighter told Radio Furqaan that there had been no casualties among the militants during the battle.“Al-Shabaab will continue their efforts until they completely restore the Islamic religion on the earth regardless of the death of Sheikh Osama bin Laden,” al-Shabaab’s spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told reporters in Mogadishu, the capital.Hundreds of demonstrators came out in Mogadishu on May 4 to celebrate the killing of bin Laden in Pakistan as the Somali government said the country was on high alert against revenge attacks by al-Shabaab. The U.S. accuses al-Shabaab, which has been battling Somalia’s Western-backed government since 2007, of having links to al-Qaeda.Information seized in the raid on the al-Qaeda leader’s hideout may help lead to other individual terrorists and groups and to forestall further attacks, U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview aired yesterday on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program.
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