Ahmed Mohammed, a local administration official, said Thursday four government soldiers and three of the gunmen have been killed.
Capt. Hassan Hussein, a police official in Baidoa, says the attack started with two explosions at the gate of the headquarters of South Western State followed by gunmen shooting their way onto the premises.
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No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but it bares the hallmarks of the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.
South Western State was formed in November 2014 to become the fourth federal state in Somalia and is led by the former Somali Parliamentary Speaker Shariff Hassan Sheikh Aden.
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