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the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...hit a military convoy outside Mogadishu Tuesday, causing an unknown number of deaths.
The attack targeting a passing military convoy occurred in Afgoye, a district about 30 km northwest of Mogadishu, police officer Maj. Abdiqadir Ali said.
"What we are sure [of] is a military vehicle was hit," Ali said, adding there were casualties but the corpse count had not yet been determined.
Al-Shabaab’s military operations front man Abdiasis Abu Musab told Rooters they were responsible for the attack.
The group, an ally of al-Qaeda, is fighting to topple the country’s western-backed central government and impose its rule based on its own interpretation of sharia law.
Al-Shabaab also wants to force out an 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...
-mandated AMISOM peacekeeping force that is helping defend the government of President Mohammad Abdullahi Mohammad.
"One of our mujahideen [was] martyred after he rammed his car into a Somali military convoy," Abu Musab said.
One military pick-up truck was destroyed while 12 soldiers were killed by the blast, he said and added that a second vehicle in the convoy was also damaged.
The soldiers in the convoy were U.S.-trained Somali military commandoes. al-Shabaab have targeted them on the same road several times in the past.