MOGADISHU, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Somali insurgents on Monday mounted an ambitious attack on a base where U.S. special forces train Somali commandos, while an Italian military convoy was hit in a separate blast in the capital Mogadishu.
No casualties were reported in either attack, U.S and Italian officials said.
Twin vehicle-borne bombs at the Baledogle base, where Somali forces and Ugandan peacekeepers are also housed, were followed by small arms fire, a security source and Somali police said.
“Two suicide car bombs … tried to attack Baledogle airport but they detonated outside the airport gate,” police Major Abdullahi Nur said.
The al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab said it carried out the attack.
Baledogle is about 100 km west of Mogadishu. Insurgents attacked the base in February using mortars, but caused no casualties.
“The security forces stopped this ultimately failed attack due to their alertness and swift response, not allowing the attackers to breach the outer defensive perimeters of the base,” the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
The base is also used to mount drone attacks.
Monday’s attacks follow a dip in U.S. airstrikes in Somalia. Africa Command has carried out four in the past two months, compared with 28 in the first three months of 2019. Africa Command said it was monitoring the situation.
Al Shabaab said its fighters had breached the base perimeter, though police denied that.
“In the early hours of Monday morning, an elite unit of soldiers from Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen’s Martyrdom Brigade launched a daring raid on the U.S. military base,” the group said in a statement.
“After breaching the perimeters of the heavily fortified base, the mujahideen (holy warriors) stormed the military complex, engaging the crusaders in an intense firefight.”
In a separate attack on Monday in Mogadishu, a roadside bomb targeted an Italian military convoy. The Italians are part of a European Union mission training Somali forces.
The incidents follow several other major al Shabaab attacks.
On Sept 22, insurgents attacked a base in El Salini, southwest of Mogadishu, using a suicide car bomb and gunmen.
A week earlier, al Shabaab said it killed 14 Burundian peacekeepers. The African Union said three Burundians were killed. — NNN-AGENCIES
