Somalia’s militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab raided the country’s largest military base for African Union troops on Thursday, detonating a car bomb at the entrance before engaging in a firefight with troops, a spokesman for the group said.
A spokesman for the African Union forces, Col. Ali Aden Houmed, confirmed the attack at the Halane base in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in a call with CNN, but did not elaborate.
A gun battle was under way at the compound on Thursday afternoon, al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab said on Radio Andalus, a pro-Al-Shabaab broadcaster.
“Our Mujahedeen forces detonated a car bomb at the entrance of the Halane compound … then managed to enter the facility,” Abu Musab said.
The heavily fortified Halane base in Mogadishu also houses several U.N and international agencies.