Foreign

Al-Shabab Attacks Ugandan Troop’s Base of AU Transition Mission

By Web News 492

The militant al-Shabab group on Friday morning carried out an attack on a Ugandan troops’ base of the African Union Transition Mission (ATMIS) in Bulla Mareer district, in Lower Shabelle region in Somalia.

The attack began shortly after morning prayers. It started with a large explosion, believed to be an explosives-laden vehicle.

Buulo Mareer is about 110km (68 miles) from the capital, Mogadishu.

Residents reported that after the big explosion, two more explosions occurred in the camp, before a fight started between the Ugandan troops and the attackers.

Al-Shabab said they captured the camp and killed dozens of ATMIS soldiers, but there has been no independent confirmation of the group’s claim.

ATMIS says its forces are currently assessing the security situation in the area but no word yet from the Somali government regarding the attack.

Ugandan army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye told Kenya’s Daily Nation that the military was probing the attack. He blamed “foreign insurgents” for the raid without giving further details.

The actual damage caused by the attack is not yet known.

Civilians have remained inside their houses and though some of the bullets being fired hit their houses, no damage has been reported.

Some residents in Bulo Mareer told the BBC that they could hear the sound of helicopters hovering over the city.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

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Foreign

US Air Strike Kills 30 Al-Shabab Militants

By Web News 383

A US air strike assisting government troops in Somalia has killed about 30 Islamist al-Shabab militants, the US military says.

The operation happened near the town of Galcad, about 260km (162 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu.

Over the past few days, the Somali army and al-Shabab militants have fought for control of the town.

Friday’s air strike came as the army was being attacked by more than 100 militants, the US Africa Command says.

Earlier the Islamists killed seven soldiers after storming a military base in Galcad. Somalia’s Information Ministry said dozens of the militants were killed.

Al-Shabab has been fighting Somalia’s central government since 2006, aiming to impose an extremist Islamist regime. While it has been pushed out of Mogadishu and other areas it continues to attack military and civilian targets.

Last Monday the government said its army and local militias had captured the port town of Harardhere, which had been a key al-Shabab supply centre since 2010.

In its report on the Galcad fighting the US Africa Command said three al-Shabab vehicles were destroyed and “the command assesses that no civilians were injured or killed”. The details have not been independently verified.

“US Africa Command’s forces will continue training, advising and equipping partner forces to help give them the tools they need to defeat al-Shabab, the largest and most deadly al-Qaeda network in the world,” the statement said.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

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Foreign

Deaths Trail al-Shabab’s Attack on Somalia Food Convoy

By Web News 454

At least 20 people, including women and children, have been killed and food aid destroyed after militants attacked several vehicles in Somalia’s central Hiiraan region.

“They put a bomb while people were in the car and blew it up,” the region’s governor told the BBC Somali service.

Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said it was targeting a government-affiliated armed group.

The al-Qaeda-linked militants want to overthrow the central government.

Al-Shabab controls much of southern and central Somalia, but has been able to extend its influence into areas controlled by the government based in the capital Mogadishu.

Two weeks ago its fighters stormed a hotel in the capital and killed more than 20 people.

The Governor of Hiiraan, Ali Jeyte Osman, said the death toll from Friday’s attack could rise amid reports that up to 27 people had been killed.

“Some are injured and some ran away when the shooting started. The dead bodies are still being collected, including women and children,” he said.

Mr Osman accused the militants of being at war with the civilian population in the region, accusing them of burning villages and destroying water wells.

Local clan leader Mohamed Abdirahman described the attack as horrible, adding that such an atrocity had never happened in the region before.

“These were innocent civilians who did nothing to deserve this,” he was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed that his government would “leave no stone unturned” in the fight against “terrorism” in the country.

In a statement al-Shabab said the lorries it attacked were carrying food supplies for a group of local fighters who have been backing the government’s offensive against them.

An ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Somalia with the UN warning recently that worst was yet to come.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Foreign

Militants Attack AU Base in Somalia

By Web News 747

Al-Shabab militants have targeted an African Union base in central Somalia that houses Burundian soldiers.

News agencies are quoting witnesses as saying there was heavy fighting at the base, which is some 130km (80 miles) north-east of the capital, Mogadishu.

“The terrorists attacked the Burundian army base… there was heavy fighting and casualties inflicted on both sides, but we don’t have more details about this incident so far,” local military commander Mohamed Ali told the AFP news agency.

“They launched the attack with a car bomb blast before a heavy exchange of gunfire broke out,” he added.

The African Union force – now known as Atmis – is made up of soldiers from several African nations: Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia.

It supports the Mogadishu government in its fight against al-Shabab militants.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon