Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has escaped unscathed from an ambush by al-Shabab fighters during a visit to Afgoye.

Ahmed was making a rare trip out of Mogadishu on Tuesday when the convoy was attacked by gunmen in the Afgoye corridor, a key road about 30km north of the capital.

Two Somali soldiers were wounded in the attack but Ahmed was able to continue his trip, a Somali security official said.

The armored convoy was guarded by African Union troops and Somali government soldiers, who seized Afgoye last week after a four-day battle.

A pro-Shabab website said its fighters had carried out the attack against "the head of the enemy" and that Sharif had been saved after he was "surrounded by African Union troops and white gunmen for his safety".

The loss of Afgoye, which controls key roads north of the capital, was another major blow for al-Shabab which has been on the back foot for several months despite launching a wave of guerrilla attacks.

Although it controls large parts of southern Somalia, regional armies and government troops have been regaining territory, with AU forces in Mogadishu, Ethiopian soldiers in the south and west, and Kenyan troops with the AU in the south.

Warships 'repulsed'

In the port town of Kismayo, the group's last major bastion, al-Shabab said its fighters had exchanged gunfire with warships.

Several foreign navies operate anti-piracy patrols off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation.

Kenyan army spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said there were "naval patrols close to Kismayo", but could not confirm if Kenyan vessels were those involved in the clashes.

Nine warships in a European Union naval force are currently deployed off Somalia by France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands. But the force is deployed to tackle piracy rather than to fight against al-Shabab.

PHOTO CAPTION

Somalia's President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed attends a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul (unseen) in Istanbul August 17, 2011.

Al-Jazeera