Uganda says al-Shabab kills 12 soldiers in Somalia ambush

Al-Shabab claimed it killed 39 soldiers. It was not possible to verify the claim; the group frequently inflates death tolls from attacks carried out by its fighters.

Sunday’s attack came hours after a car bomb in Somalia’s capital killed at least five people, most of them civilians, shattering a month of relative calm in Mogadishu.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa. It maintains a presence largely in Somalia’s rural areas and continues to pose major challenges to the allied Somali and African Union forces, even as the AU force plans to pull out of Somalia in the coming years and leave security to Somali troops.

Hundreds of African Union soldiers have been killed in recent years as al-Shabab targets their military bases as well.

Sunday’s ambush was one of the deadliest attacks on Ugandan forces in recent years. In September 2015 al-Shabab killed at least 19 Ugandan soldiers at a military base in Janale, southwest of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab is opposed to the presence of foreign troops inside Somalia and has mounted deadly attacks in the capitals of Uganda and Kenya, which also has troops in Somalia.

Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Uganda says al-Shabab kills 12 soldiers in Somalia ambush

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