Dozens killed as Somali Shebab ‘overrun African Union base’

Mogadishu (AFP) – Dozens of soldiers were killed Friday when Somalia’s Shebab insurgents overran an African Union base, witnesses said, describing intense fighting with corpses left strewn on the ground.

“The fighting was the heaviest ever around this area. The Shebab fighters took full control of the base and killed many soldiers,” Alinur Mohamed, an elder in Lego village, 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu, told AFP.

Witnesses said they had seen as many as 50 bodies but the reports were impossible to independently confirm.