Friday January 15, 2016
MOGADISHU - Fighters from Somalia militant group al Shabaab attacked an African Union base in southern Somalia early on Friday, militants and a Somali army officer said, and fighting was going on inside.
The militants rammed a suicide car bomb into the gates of the base in Ceel Cado, about 550 km west of Mogadishu, near the Kenyan border, before their fighters burst inside. A Somali military officer said fighting was continuing."Our fighters went in and after heavy exchange of gunfire we took over the base," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters. Residents said they could hear sporadic gunfire.
(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Robert Birsel)