Al Shabaab terrorists ambushed Somali and African Union, AU troops today killing 24 of them. Some of the peacekeepers killed were Uganda troops, said Uganda’s defence ministry.
The ministry said its soldiers were part of the AMISOM convoy and an unspecified number of its soldiers had been killed.
The Islamist terrorists gave a higher death toll .
The African troops were ambushed in the Bulamareer district of the Lower Shabelle region, about 140 km (85 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, Colonel Hassan Mohamed told Reuters
Ali Nur, the deputy governor of Lower Shabelle region, said: “We have carried 23 dead AMISOM soldiers and a dead Somali soldier from the scene where al Shabaab ambushed AMISOM today,”
Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said: “We have in hand 39 dead bodies of AU soldiers including their commander.”
The casualty figure could not be independently verified. The numbers al Shabaab and officials give usually differ.
Al Shabaab wants to force out the peacekeepers, oust the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam in Somalia.
