December 25, 2014 – At least nine people were killed in Somalia when Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group stormed the Halane base of the Africa Union situated very close to the Mogadishu international airport.
The base houses U.N. operations in Somalia as well as the British and Italian embassies and has a tight security cordon and blast walls.
Among those killed were three peace keepers and a contractor and five members of the militant group, while three other militants were captured.
“The terrorists, some of whom were disguised in Somali National Army uniforms, breached the base camp around lunch hour and attempted to gain access to critical infrastructure, during which five of them were killed and three others captured,” the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, AMISOM, said in a statement.
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, which lasted several hours, and said it had killed 14 peacekeepers.
“We targeted the enemies at a time they were celebrating Christmas,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.
