At least 167 Ethiopian soldiers were killed in an ambush by militants of the radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab in western Somalia, the Somali Guardian news portal reported on Sunday, citing the group.

The group also said that surviving Ethiopian soldiers had been captured and the advance of Ethiopian troops had been stopped, the report said, adding that the militants also destroyed Ethiopian military equipment and seized a large amount of weapons.

The Ethiopian armed forces and the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) have not yet commented on the attack, the report noted.

The Ethiopian military tried to strengthen its forward operating base in the town of Wajid, which has been under militants’ control for almost a decade, the news portal reported.

Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based jihadist militant group linked to an al-Qaeda terrorist group (banned in Russia). It wages armed resistance against the Somali government and obstructs UN humanitarian missions in the country.

(With UNI inputs)