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Mogadishu (AFP / Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab guerrillas Saturday seized a town on the border with Ethiopia after government forces retreated from the city, said a militia commander and local residents.

Elberde city in northern Somalia was recently used as a headquarters for the newly trained government troops from areas in southern Somalia.

"The Mujahideen finally mastered the district, we have destroyed the headquarters of the enemy and forcing them to flee," said Sheikh Hasan Mo `alim Takow, a commander of Al Sbahaab.

Adam Ali Nur, a citizen Elberde, tells Reuters: "Shabaab fighters attacked the city's heavily armed Saturday, which caused intense shootout that killed one person and wounding three others from the groups who fought it."

According to him, government forces have been emptying the district and crossed into Ethiopia. It is not known fighters who were killed were members of which side.

Western countries and the neighboring states of Somalia Somalia has become a safe haven for guerrilla hard-liners who tend to launch attacks in eastern Africa and beyond.

Somalia has not had a functioning central government since 1991. Temporary government controlled only a little more than a few blocks of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with the rest of the country was divided between the militia group Al Shabaab, Hizbul Islam and Ahlu Sunnah wal Jamaat which pro-government.

Al Shabaab, which declared allegiance to Al Qaeda, want to apply a strict version of Islamic law in the Horn of Africa country.