The al-Qaeda-linked group also urged the Horn of Africa nation and key Western ally to expel foreign forces and shut down the United States' main Africa base, or else face a wave of more serious attacks.
"As part of the ongoing Jihad against the Western-led Crusade against Islam, Harakat Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
Al Mujahideen forces have on Saturday night carried out a successful operation against the coalition of Western Crusaders based in Djibouti," the group said in a statement.
The group said the attack "targeted a restaurant frequented predominantly by French Crusaders and their NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
allies from the U.S., Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, resulting in 35 casualties".
It said the main targets were "French Crusaders" because of their "complicity in the massacres and persecution of our Mohammedan brothers in the Central African Republic and for their active role in training and equipping the apostate Djiboutian troops".
Local officials said three people -- a Turkish national and two jacket wallahs, one of them a woman -- died in the attack, although the Shabaab statement claimed that two "senior French commanders" were also killed.
Local authorities have said seven Frenchies, four Germans, three Spanish and several locals were hurt, while the French foreign ministry has said its nationals were only lightly maimed.
Shabaab said the attack was also carried out in retaliation for Djibouti's hosting of the United States' biggest military base in Africa.