WRAP UP: Ethiopian-AU forces ‘repulse’ major militants assault on military base, kill ‘scores’

Hiiraan Online
Thursday, June 9, 2016

MOGADISHU (HOL) – The African Union force in Somalia killed scores of fighters from the Al-Qaeda linked group in Somalia, repulsing a major on an army base in central Somalia Thursday, officials said.

Residents in the town of Halgan, in Hiiraan region told HOL that hundreds of heavily armed Al Shabab fighters launched an complex on a base for the Ethiopian troops who are parts of the 22000-strong African Union force on Thursday morning after a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle into the gate, allowing attackers to launch a face-to-face attack on the base.

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The African Union force said that its troops repelled the attack and killed 110 militants, echoing an earlier statement from the Ethiopian government which claimed that troops killed more than 100 militants.

Witnesses spoke of chaotic scenes, with bodies littered across the town’s sandy streets and seeing fighters captured by Ethiopian forces.

Al Shabab claimed it lost 16 fighters and killed 43 soldiers during the attack which resembled an attack the group launched on a Kenyan military camp last year in El-Adde town in which at least 200 soldiers were killed.

It is impossible to verify the stated casualty figures by sides involved, with analysts said that unlike El-Adde attack, Al Shabab fighters were unable to storm the outpost military base in the rural town.

“They were dealt a major blow in today’s operation, and it showed that terrorists can be subjected to a fatal blow.” said Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in a statement issued after the attack.

Pictures shared on the social media showed dozens of rifles seized by troops and mangled bodies lying face down on the ground.

Meanwhile, hospital sources in Beledweyne town said that at least 16 people wounded during the attack were brought into the town’s main hospital.

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