Heavily armed Al Shabaab fighters launched deadly attack on African Union military base in Janaale town, situated about 90km south of Mogadishu, officials and witnesses said. The attack started with car laden with bomb explosives that rammed into the base then heavily armed fighters stormed the base. At least 50 African Union mission for Somalia (AMISOM) troops were killed several others wounded in Tuesday’s attack by Al Shabaab, residents said. Somalia’s former Janaale DC, Bashiir Abdi Mohamed confirmed that at least 50 AMISOM soldiers were killed while several wounded soldiers laying along Janaale river. The radical group of Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, saying it killed 50 AU soldiers and sized several weapons and ammunitions. The militants reportedly allowed villagers to loot African Union soldiesrs’ food supplies after the base took over by Al Qaeda linked to Al Shabaab insugents, residents said. In July, al-Shabab claimed to have killed “dozens” of AMISOM troops at an outpost in Lego, about 100km northwest of Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Factfile
- Al-Shabab means The Youth in Arabic.
- It emerged as the radical youth wing of Somalia’s now-defunct Union
- of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu in 2006, before being
- forced out by Ethiopian forces.
- There are numerous reports of foreign jihadists going to Somalia to
- help al-Shabab, from neighbouring countries, as well as the US and
- Europe.
- It is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK and is
- believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters.
- Al-Shabab has staged numerous attacks in Kenya. The 2 April
- massacre at Garissa University, near the border with Somalia, is the
- bloodiest so far.
- At least 147 people died when gunmen stormed the university at
- dawn and targeted Christian students.
- Previously the worst attack was on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping
- centre in 2013, when at least 68 people died.
- In Westgate, and other attacks, the militants spared Muslims, while
- killing those unable to recite verses from the Koran.
- There are also regular gun and grenade attacks attributed to al-
- Shabab both in border areas, where many Kenyans are ethnic
- Somalis, and in Nairobi.
- Kenya has sent its troops into Somali territory, where they have joined
- the African Union force battling the militants.
- Al-Shabab has also set up a recruiting network in Kenya, especially
- around the port city of Mombasa, which has a large Muslim
- population.
