Al-Shabab Terrorists Kill 43 in Somalia
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia claimed it had killed 43 soldiers in an attack on a base of Ethiopian troops north of the capital, Mogadishu.
"We killed 43 soldiers from Ethiopia in the fighting," al-Shabab's military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told the Reuters news agency.
He said "several" of the group's militants had also been killed, without giving a figure.
The fatalities came early Thursday when the Takfiri group detonated a car bomb at the base for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in the town of Halgan, about 300 km north of Mogadishu.
Residents said they heard a huge explosion at the base and a heavy exchange of gunfire shortly before dawn.
They reported gunfire could still be heard at least an hour after the initial blast.
The Takfiri terrorist group, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012, has been behind violence and chaos in the African country, targeting key government and security figures.
The African Union mission has deployed about 22,000 peacekeepers to help Somali government forces stabilize the country.
Al-Shabab has been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities by government forces and the AMISOM, which is largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
The mission is estimated to have lost at least 1,100 troops since 2009.
