Somalia security forces have killed 65 Shebab militant group who attacked coastal towns in the semi-autonomous Puntland area in the country’s northeast.

Somalia security forces have killed 65 Shebab militant group who attacked coastal towns in the semi-autonomous Puntland area in the country's northeast, the regional army chief said Monday.

"The fighting is almost over and the security forces are now pursuing the remnants of the militants" after five days of clashes, General Muhidin Ahmed Muse told reporters.

"Sixty-five of the militants who have been misled into this war, have been killed so far and 31 others, most of them children, were captured alive," he added.

A group of the Islamic insurgents stormed a Somali military base outside the capital Mogadishu early Monday, claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties.

Several residents of the region said they saw Shebab fighters come ashore aboard fishing boats last week armed with machine guns, mortars and rocket launchers.

The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab terrorist group was ousted from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since lost much of the territory it once held.