By IANS,
Mogadishu : At least 10 people have been killed in an attack on an African Union base in the Somali town of Beledweyne near Ethiopia’s border, BBC reported Tuesday citing witnesses.
A car rammed into the gates of the base for Djiboutian troops and Somali policemen, exploded and gunmen then stormed the base, some 300 km north of the capital Mogadishu.
“The explosion was enormous and there are casualties… but the situation is now under control,” Abdulkadir Ali, a senior police officer, was quoted as saying.
An al-Shabab spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab, said the Al Qaeda-linked group was responsible for the attack.
Al-Shabab militants have been driven out of Somalia’s major towns by a UN-mandated African Union force (Amisom) of some 18,000 soldiers, but still control large parts of southern Somalia.