Somali extremists: Dozens of Kenyan peacekeepers killed

The Kenyan military denied the death toll, saying it was pure “propaganda”.

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

“Our fighters went in and after a heavy exchange of gunfire we took over the base”, Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters, which cited residents as reporting sporadic gunfire inside the military compound.

The group with ties to al-Qaeda reportedly attacked the AU base in el-Ade, southwestern Somalia after morning prayers.

Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) spokesman Col. David Obonyo told Anadolu Agency that Kenyan jets were responding to the attack with airstrikes, claiming that at least 100 militants had been killed so far.

The Shabab, fighting to overthrow Somalia’s internationally backed and AU-protected government, has launched a string of similar attacks.

The Kenyan army said it wasn’t their base that was attacked but that of the Somali army.

“Once we come to an end of this battle, we will have information on number of casualties and proper account of what happened”. The raid took place in Ceel Cado, about 550 kilometres west of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and near the country’s southern border with Kenya, the news agency said.

According to the BBC, the attack on the base, which is run by Kenyan troops, began with a suicide auto bomb. Amisom said at the time it was verifying the number of casualties.

Last September, the group’s fighters stormed a Ugandan Amisom base in Janale district, 80 kilometres south-west of Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region.

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

Al Shabab, a fundamentalist group that wants to impose Shariah law in the country, has waged a decade-long insurgency against the Somali government.