United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the terrorist attack perpetrated by Al Shabaab this morning against an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base in the town of El Adde, Gedo region in Somalia.
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Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab militants stormed an African Union base manned by Kenyan troops in the country’s south-west on Friday, with several killed in fierce gun battles.
Al-Shabab said their fighters killed dozens of Kenyan troops in the attack.
“They launched an offensive on a military base at El-Adde and there was heavy fighting which caused casualties”, Somali army colonel Idris Ahmed said.
Terror group Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack in an online statement.
“Our gallant soldiers reacted swiftly to protect their camp”, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said.
Obonyo said that although al-Shabaab claimed they killed Kenyan forces in the attack, their soldiers say the target was a Somali National Army (SNA) base.
Residents told BBC that al-Shabab had raised its flag at a camp for Kenyan troops and said insurgents had paraded bodies through the town.
Soldiers serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) patrol outside a Mosque during Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at a Mosque in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, July 17, 2015.
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Kenyan troops were killed when al-Shabab Islamic fighters attacked an African Union base in Somalia, Kenya’s president said Friday.
Al-Shabab militants have frequently staged attacks against government officials and civilians over the past years. Kampala authorities disputed the number of casualties.
According to the BBC, the attack on the base, which is run by Kenyan troops, began with a suicide auto bomb.
“Everyone is familiar with al-Shabab’s propaganda”.
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The group, which has ties with al-Qaida, has also carried out many deadly attacks in Kenya. It was also responsible for a raid on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in 2013, which killed 67 people.
