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Somalia: 30 Ethiopian troops killed in attack by militants
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least 30 Æthiopian troops were killed Thursday in an attack on a base for African Union...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peacekeepers in central Somalia, a Somali military official said. A jacket wallah detonated his explosives-laden vehicle early Thursday at the gates of the Æthiopian military base there before gunnies entered the base, said Mohammed Mohamud, a military officer in the town of Halgan, where the attack happened. The corpse count is likely to rise, he said. The Islamic bad boy group al-Shabaab  ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... claimed it had killed 43 Æthiopian soldiers in the attack. But the Æthiopian Communications Minister Getachew Reda told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the assault was repelled and that more than 100 of the attackers were killed. He did not say how many Æthiopians were killed or injured. Æthiopian troops are pursuing the Death Eaters who fled led during the firefight, he said. The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, said on Twitter that there had been attempted attack on a base run jointly by the Somali national army and African Union peacekeepers. The attackers were "successfully repulsed" and some of their weapons seized, it said. Al-Shabaab, which has ties with al-Qaeda, is fighting to impose a strict version of Islam in this Horn of Africa nation. Despite losing a lot of ground in recent years, the gang continues to carry out lethal attacks in many parts of the country, including near the seat of government in the capital Mogadishu. African Union peacekeepers are trying to prevent al-Shabaab from threatening the authority of the weak, Western-backed federal government in Mogadishu. Posted by: Fred 2016-06-10 |
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