10 killed in al-Shabab attack in Beledweyne, Somalia
Iran Press TV
Tue Nov 19, 2013 2:24PM GMT
Al-Shabab militants have targeted a police station run by the African Union force in Somali town of Beledweyne, killing at least 10 people.
Gunmen armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday attacked the base in Beledweyne, which lies north of Mogadishu near the Ethiopian border.
Militants rammed an explosive-laden car into the gates of the base before storming the building and getting engaged in an hour-long gun battle.
Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.
'We attacked the Beledweyne police station and killed many Somali police and Djiboutians,' al Shabaab's military spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters.
'The station is now under our control. We are inside and still carrying out the operation.'
Colonel Abdulkadir Ali, a senior local police commander, said the car bomb explosion was "enormous" and there were casualties, but stressed that the situation was under control.
Colonel Osman Dubbad, the commander of Djiboutian troops in Beledweyne, also said 10 attackers were killed in the clashes.
The al-Qaeda-linked militants have been driven out of Somalia's major towns by an 18,000-strong UN-mandated African Union force, known as AMISOM.
AMISOM is made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
Last week, the UN Security Council approved an extra 4,400 troops to join AMISOM while renewing the mandate of the African force.
MRS/PR
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