News Obiaks News

Somalia al Shabaab militants confirmed killing 43 soldiers on Thursday, when their fighters rammed a suicide car bomb into a base of Ethiopian troops serving with the African Union's AMISOM force.

Residents near the base in the central town of Haglan said they heard a huge explosion and then heavy exchanges of gunfire shortly before dawn.

They added that shots went out at least an hour after the initial blast.

Abdiasis Musab, Shabaab's Military Operations Spokesman, said their fighters stormed the Halgan base of AMISOM and used a suicide car bomb and then exchanged fire with Ethiopian troops there.

He said "several"� al Shabaab fighters died, but did not give a number.

"It was a huge blast that destroyed the gate and parts of the base.

"It was a good fight as al Shabaab fighters overran the base and drove out the Ethiopian troops before withdrawing,'' he said.

He added that al Shabaab fighters also repelled a counter attack by Djibouti troops deployed from another base in the area.

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

He recalled that in January, Kenyan troops serving with AMISOM suffered heavy losses when al Shabaab made a dawn raid on their camp in El Adde, near the Kenyan border.
The spokesman said Al Shabaab has killed more than 100 soldiers but Kenya gave no exact casualty figure.