Somali rebel group al-Shabab said it has killed 43 soldiers in an attack on a base of Ethiopian troops serving with the African Union's AMISOM force in the Horn of Africa nation.
"Our fighters stormed the Halgan base of AMISOM ... We killed 43 AU soldiers from Ethiopia in the fighting," al-Shabab's military operations spokesperson Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters news agency after Thursday's attack, adding "several" of its fighters had also been killed without giving a figure.
"It was a huge blast. It destroyed the gate and parts of the base," he added.
The base at Halgan town lies in a region of central Somalia about 300km north of the capital Mogadishu.
An AMISOM spokesperson had no immediate comment.
Residents said they heard a huge explosion at the base and a heavy exchange of gunfire shortly before dawn.
Residents said they heard a huge explosion at the base and a heavy exchange of gunfire shortly before dawn.
The group often launches gun and bomb attacks on officials, Somali security forces and AMISOM in an effort to topple the Western-backed government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia.
In January, Kenyan troops serving with AMISOM suffered heavy losses when al-Shabab made a dawn raid on their camp in El Adde, near the Kenyan border. Al-Shabab said it killed more than 100 soldiers but Kenya gave no exact casualty figure.
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