Al-Shabaab kills at least 15 near a Mogadishu military base
Mogadishu — Al-Shabaab fighters killed at least 15 soldiers in an attack on a military base near Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, the militant group and Somali officials said on Friday. This comes a day after seven people were killed in a car-bomb attack at a bus stop near a market in the city’s Hamar Weyne district. The militants used guns and car bombs to take control of the base and a nearby town, Barire, 50km south-west of Mogadishu, in an early-morning attack. The fighters also took 11 pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns, known as "technicals", said Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman. "The other soldiers ran helter-skelter into the woods. We now control the base and the village," he said. A Somali military officer put the number of dead at 15; al-Shabaab said 21 were killed. The government and al-Shabaab often give different death tolls. "There was a battalion of soldiers but there was fierce fighting; twin suicide car-bombs and hand-to-hand fightin...
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