Somalia: Shebab attack a camp of the AU force, deaths

Al-Shabab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu Mudan said on the group’s online radio that at least 63 soldiers were killed in the attack in southwestern Somalia that started early Friday.

Islamic Militant group, Al-shabab on Friday attacked an African Union (AU) Peacekeeping base in Southwester Somalia.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Defence, the SNA camp was over run and the KDF troops under AMISOM counter-attacked in support of SNA.

“Our gallant soldiers reacted swiftly to protect their camp – to protect their peace and stability that they are in Somalia to secure, and to protect our country from its enemies”, Kenyatta said in a statement.

African Union soldiers, shown on a recent patrol in Mogadishu, are frequent targets by Somali Islamic militants.

Hussein said: “They first rammed a suicide vehicle bomb into the gate of the Kenyan forces base in El-Adde, about 93 kilometers from the Kenyan border”.

“At the moment the camp is in the hands of al-Shabaab”.

Al-Shabab said their fighters killed dozens of Kenyan troops in the attack.

“This attack sends a clear message to the Kenyan government that their military’s invasion of our Muslim lands and the massacre of innocent Muslims perpetrated by the Kenyan crusaders will not be without severe consequences”, al Shabaab said.

But the 22,000-strong AMISOM force has also made significant gains against the al-Shabaab, pushing them out of several strongholds in the southwest of the country.

“The operation is still ongoing”, Njuguna said.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISON) confirmed the attack via its Twitter account, stating it would provide an update to the situation “with factual details”, in an apparent criticism of al-Shabab’s account of the raid.

“We are also attacking remnants of the militants on the ground near the location that was attacked today”, he said.

It said it killed 61 Kenyan soldiers serving as part of the African Union forces, while other soldiers escaped. It was a base for Kenyan military forces, there were a few Somali soldiers with Kenyans and escaped.