Dozens killed as Somali Shebab attacks AU base
Dozens of soldiers were killed yesterday when Somalia's Shebab insurgents overran an African Union base, witnesses said, describing intense fighting which left corpses strewn on the ground.
"The fighting was the heaviest ever around this area. The Shebab fighters took full control of the base and killed many soldiers," Alinur Mohamed, an elder in Lego village, 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Mogadishu, told AFP.
Witnesses said they had seen as many as 50 bodies but the reports were impossible to independently confirm. Some bodies had been reportedly beheaded.
The military outpost was manned by some 100 Burundian soldiers who are part of the 22,000 strong African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
Residents said the dawn raid started with a suicide bomber driving a car loaded with explosives into the entrance of the base, before dozens of militants armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades began their assault.
Another elder, Ahmed Bulle said the Shebab militants were later seen looting the base, loading supplies onto trucks.
Earlier on Friday AMISOM confirmed the attack but gave no further details as to possible casualties.
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