( CNN ) -- Islamic militants ambushed Ethiopian forces in southern Somalia Saturday and hours-long fighting left scores of people dead . The fierce firefights killed 86 Al-Shabaab fighters , said Diyad Abdi Kalil , a commander of the transitional government in Somalia 's Gedo province . The militants ambushed the soldiers in the town of Yurkut , still under Somali control . In recent weeks , Somali government forces , backed by their Ethiopian allies , have retaken southern towns controlled by Al-Shabaab , including strategically important Baidoa . The gun battles lasted almost five hours , Kalil said , and erupted a day after the African Union announced that Ethiopia planned to withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of April . Paddy Ankunda , spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia ( AMISOM ) said forces from Djibouti , Uganda and Burundi will replace the Ethiopians . Meanwhile , Sheikh Abu Musab , the military spokesman of Al-Shabaab claimed on a local radio station that its fighters killed 73 soldiers , mostly Ethiopians , in Saturday 's fighting . The Islamist group has waged an insurgency against the feeble Transitional Federal Government since 2007 but is now on the defensive in its heartland in southern Somalia . It announced last month that it was tightening its ties to al Qaeda and has long been considered a terrorist movement by the United States . AMISOM and government forces drove Al-Shabaab fighters from the center of the Somali capital Mogadishu last year , while Kenyan troops crossed into southern Somalia in October to hit back for a rash of kidnappings it blamed on the group . That Kenyan operation is ongoing . After it began , Ethiopian troops joined Somali government units in attacking Al-Shabaab strongholds .
Al-Shabaab fighters ambush Somali forces . A Ethiopian commander says 73 militants are dead . Al-Shabaab says 86 soldiers died . In recent weeks , the militants have lost control of some southern Somali towns .