Las Anod — Fighting is raging on in the northern city of Las Anod between Somaliland troops and armed residents who want to be out of under Hargeisa control.

An official in the town said local forces managed to repel an attack by Somaliland forces against their entrance checkpoint on Monday morning.

The two sides engaged in a deadly gunfight early in the morning as SSC traditional elders were preparing to announced the result of days-long conference in Las Anod city.

The meeting produced a communique that declare an autonomous regional state, free from the secessionist state after almost 15 years of oppressions and lack of freedom, they said.

At least 35 people were killed and dozens of others injured during Monday's fighting.

The general hospital was coping with the civilians caught in the cross-fire and sustained wounds. The dead include a family of seven members whose house was hit by a mortar.

Since yesterday, Somaliland forces continued shelling the city as an attempt to prevent the elders to establish an administration that supports the greater Somalia and part of the Federal member states.

After the demonstrations and shootings in Lasanod in early January, many families left the city in fear of a full-blown of war between SSC forces and Somaliland troops.