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Somalia

HEAVILY armed al-Shabaab jihadists stormed an AU base in Somalia yesterday, triggering a fierce firefight that left an unknown number of casualties, a local military commander said. AU forces dispatched helicopter gunships after the car bomb and gun attack on a camp housing Burundian peacekeepers near a village 160km north-east of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab has been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s government. It claimed responsibility for the assault, less than a week after parliament chose new speakers for the upper and lower houses, a key step for elections. |