Al-Shabaab terrorist group linked to Al- Qaeda launched an offensive against African Union military base killing at least 70 soldiers and capturing the base.
Al-Shabab fighters march with their weapons during military exercises on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo: AP
Al-Shabaab militants carried out a massacre against soldiers at the African Union military base in southern Somalia 90 km south-east of the capital Mogadishu.
Despite African Union forces insist they are still in control of the base, local residents say that the militants have managed to seize the base during the attack.
According to the witnesses the attack on the base run by the Ugandan troops started with a suicide car bombing at the base’s gate, followed by a heavy gunfire which lasted more than an hour.
The local residents say they saw the troops fleeing the base but the militants blew up a nearby bridge to prevent soldiers from escaping and that caused heavy losses among soldiers. According to reports up to seventy troops were killed in a combat with terrorists.
Captain Bilow Idow, a Somali military officer told the press that the base was substantially damaged by the attackers and no reinforcement can reach there now.
The Islamist group Jama’atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, may have received from al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and other sources over $70 million (N11.2billion) between 2006 and 2011 from its sponsors to conduct terrorist attacks, kidnappings, the most recent of which is abduction of over 234 schoolgirls from GGSS Chibok.
Besides that, al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab terrorist organizations operating in the Islamic Maghreb and Arabian peninsula are helping members of Boko Haram carry out their operations in Nigeria.
This is according to forensic criminologist and security co-ordinator at the American University of Nigeria, Dr. Lionel Von Frederck Rawlins.
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