Somalia's defence ministry announced that federal forces killed nearly thirty attackers and captured several others following heavy fighting in Baidoa. Publishing casualty figures within hours of the clashes ending, the government released images showing corpses laid out in the open, detained men seated on the ground, and a line of captured vehicles. The ministry explicitly classified the attackers as "Khawarij"—the administration's specific term for al-Shabaab—and stated they operated alongside militias loyal to Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen, the former president of Southwest State. The fighting began before dawn on Monday when militias advanced from two directions, engaging two battalions of federal troops stationed in the regional capital. Residents reported the use of heavy weapons within residential districts, and a local shopkeeper stated that stray gunfire killed at least two civilians inside their homes. Clashes were recorded across multiple neighbourhoods, including Siliga, Warshadda Hassay, Boonkaay, Bangi Qiyaamay, and Mursal, accompanied by temporary communications blackouts. Morning footage showed technicals moving between buildings with smoke rising, but by the end of the day, federal forces had pushed the attacking militias out of the contested areas. The rapid publication of government casualty figures lacked the identities of the deceased, leaving the military's claims difficult to independently verify. To support its account, the ministry presented the burned wreckage of a vehicle, describing it as a destroyed suicide car bomb. However, the presentation lacked typical blast patterns, fragmentation debris, or a crater. This evidence also conflicted with local reports from the previous night, which indicated that a federal base on the outskirts of Baidoa was hit first and government vehicles were set ablaze. The ministry has not addressed this discrepancy, leaving the origins of the photographed wreckage unexplained. Laftagareen's office forcefully rejected the government's terrorism designation, dismissing it as false propaganda. His administration maintained that the armed men were the state's own security forces conducting an operation to restore order and expel a federal military presence they deem unlawful. While a spokesman for Laftagareen claimed on Monday that Baidoa had fallen and demanded federal troops surrender, the Somali national army quickly denied the assertion, and no independent sources could confirm the city's capture. Despite the conflicting narratives, both sides acknowledge that the core fighting force consisted of security personnel acting on behalf of the deposed regional president. The violence represents the sharpest test yet for Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe, who was installed as Southwest president in June following a parliamentary vote. Federal and state military units had been positioned on the outskirts of the city for months anticipating exactly this scenario. Unlike the defence ministry in Mogadishu, local security officials in Baidoa remained silent on how far the attackers penetrated or what the total casualties were. The recent clashes stem directly from events in late March, when civilian flights were suspended and federal forces, alongside allied paramilitaries, seized Baidoa's police stations and commercial districts, leading to Laftagareen's resignation in an operation that left two dead and twenty-five wounded. Former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed condemned the violence on Tuesday, placing responsibility for the bloodshed squarely on the federal government. He argued the clashes were a direct consequence of the forced transfer of power in March. Having previously opposed Mogadishu's move to extend the tenures of regional leaders and the subsequent military intervention to remove Laftagareen, Sharif appealed to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to return to dialogue before the country fragments beyond recovery. The political confrontation has been accompanied by serious allegations regarding the electoral process and military resources. Sharif accused officials of paying rural voters fifty dollars each during the recent polls in Southwest and Galmudug states, an allegation Villa Somalia has yet to answer. Additionally, prior to the outbreak of violence, Southwest officials accused the federal government in Mogadishu of diverting recently arrived Egyptian-supplied weapons to allied militias, effectively keeping those arms away from the frontline against al-Shabaab. Categorising the Baidoa dead as al-Shabaab militants provides strategic utility for the federal government. This classification shifts a domestic political dispute into a counter-insurgency operation, dissolving any obligation to negotiate and shielding the use of counter-terrorism units from standard parliamentary scrutiny. Furthermore, presenting the casualties as terrorists provides foreign partners financing Somalia's security sector with perceived evidence of progress against the insurgency, as the label was applied before any bodies were formally examined. The internal fighting severely complicates the broader security environment in the region. The two federal battalions that spent Monday fighting regional paramilitaries are the same units expected to maintain stability once the African Union support mission reaches a critical funding cliff in December. Al-Shabaab currently controls the supply routes surrounding Baidoa and stands to benefit from the depletion of state forces. The clashes occurred merely thirty-six hours after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud assured African partners that Somalia no longer requires foreign peacekeepers to guarantee its national security. The deployment of heavy weapons in residential neighbourhoods poses an immediate physical threat to families living in Baidoa, while the continued military disruption of the city's main supply routes risks driving up the daily cost of food and essential goods in local markets.