Al-Shabab extremists attack African Union troops at Somalia base

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced Friday that Kenyan troops stationed at an African Union (AU) military base in southwestern Somalia were killed when al-Shabab militants attacked in an early morning raid.

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Kenyan troops were killed when al-Shabab Islamic fighters attacked an African Union base in Somalia, Kenya’s president said Friday.

Somali army colonel Idris Ahmed said an Al Shabab suicide commando blasted into the El Adde base in the Gedo region, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia, in a predawn attack. The group says it is using the vehicles to hunt down the remaining Kenyan troops who did flee.

Despite being pushed out of Somalia’s major cities and towns, al-Shabab continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks across the Horn of Africa country. A senior Somali military official also confirmed the militants had taken over the base.

Although reports indicate that Shabab had taken over the base and mounted its flag in the premises, Kenyan military officials said the fight for the facility was still on-going at the time. The statement also said that the Kenyans had then helped the Somalis to launch a counter-attack against the rebels and fighting is ongoing.

In an initial statement to newsrooms, KDF spokesman Col David Obonyo had said the attack was on a Somali National Army (SNA) camp adjacent to a Kenyan one.

“We see al Shabaab in every corner of town”, shopkeeper Abdullahi Iidle told Reuters.

“The troops are now fighting the terrorists to push them back”, LT. Col. Paul Njuguna, spokesman for African Union mission in Somalia said.

The Al-Shabaab militant group, which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, is seeking to overthrow the Western-backed Somalian government and impose a form of Islamic sharia law.

In June, Shabaab fighters killed dozens of Burundian soldiers when they overran an AMISOM outpost northwest of Mogadishu.

“For al-Shabaab the control of strategic assets has ceased to be an option since Kenyan forces joined the Amisom effort”, he said.