http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/al-shabaab-attack-somali-army-base-1.1874173#.VYbhN_lVhBc
Al-Shabaab attack Somali army base
June 21 2015 at 11:10am
By AFP Comment on this story
Mogadishu - Al-Shabaab militants launched a major suicide attack on
Sunday against a military intelligence base in the capital Mogadishu,
setting off a car bomb before storming inside, security officials
said.
Somalia's interior ministry said the three attackers were all killed
in the raid, and that Somali security forces who fought them suffered
no casualties.
“There was an attack against a base belonging to the security forces.
The violent elements used a car bomb to get inside the compound. There
was a heavy exchange of gunfire,” said Adan Mohamed, a Somali security
official.
Witnesses near the base, belonging to the internationally-backed
government's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA),
reported a loud explosion followed by intense gunfire.
“There was a heavy explosion and in seconds heavy gunfire broke out.
We cannot go outside the house because of the shooting,” said Abdulahi
Yare, a resident who lives near the base.
In a brief statement, NISA said the attack had failed.
“The attack was successfully thwarted by our forces. None of our
buildings nor bases were entered,” it said.
Somali officials displayed three corpses after the attack, which came
at the start of Islam's holy fasting month of Ramadan -- a period when
the the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, who are fighting to topple the
Mogadishu government, have in the past intensified attacks.
“The security forces have foiled an attempted attack by the desperate
terrorists,” interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Yusuf told reporters.
“One of them detonated himself and two others were shot dead. They
were trying to storm the premises but they have been taken out before
they reached their objective. There was no casualty on our side,” he
added.
The al-Shabaab, meaning “youth” in Arabic, emerged out of a bitter
insurgency against Ethiopia, whose troops entered Somalia in a 2006
US-backed invasion to topple the Islamic Courts Union that was then
controlling the capital Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab rebels continue to stage frequent attacks, seeking to
counter claims that they are close to defeat due to the loss of
territory in the face of an African Union and Somali government
offensive, regular US drone strikes against their leaders and
defections.
The group have also carried out a string of revenge attacks in
neighbouring countries -- including the September 2013 attack on the
Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi which left at
least 67 dead and the April massacre of close to 150 students in
Garissa.
Somalia has been wracked by instability since the collapse of Siad
Barre's hardline regime in 1991, and the country's new government is
being supported by a 22 000-strong AU force that includes troops from
Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
AFP
Received on Sun Jun 21 2015 - 12:15:10 EDT