Al-Shabab claims killing 43 soldiers at Ethiopian base

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Somali rebel group al-Shabab said it has killed 43 soldiers in an attack on a base of Ethiopian troops serving with the African Union’s AMISOM force in the Horn of Africa nation.

“Our fighters stormed the Halgan base of AMISOM … “We killed 43 AU soldiers from Ethiopia in the fighting,” al-Shabab’s military operations spokesperson Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters news agency after Thursday’s attack, adding “several” of its fighters had also been killed without giving a figure.

“It was a huge blast. It destroyed the gate and parts of the base,” he added.

The base at Halgan town lies in a region of central Somalia about 300 km north of the capital Mogadishu.

An AMISOM spokesperson had no immediate comment.

Residents said they heard a huge explosion at the base and a heavy exchange of gunfire shortly before dawn.

The group often launches gun and bomb attacks on officials, Somali security forces and AMISOM in a bid to topple the Western-backed government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia.

In January, Kenyan troops serving with AMISOM suffered heavy losses when al-Shabab made a dawn raid on their camp in El Adde, near the Kenyan border. Al-Shabab said it killed more than 100 soldiers but Kenya gave no exact casualty figure.

Source: Idale News Online + Reuters