Deadly explosion hits AU troops’ vehicle in Mogadishu

[Deeq A.]

MOGADISHU (Caasimada Online)–A roadside bomb explosion has targeted Burundian troops with African Union peacekeeping forces in Somali capital Mogadishu.

The explosion ripped through an armored personnel carrier at industrial road in the capital, leaving two people dead, a witness said.

He says an African Union forces’ armored carrier was destroyed in Friday’s bomb explosion.

The AU forces reportedly opened fire to response to the attack.

The peacekeeping troops sealed off at scene of the bomb attack.

Friday’s explosion was claimed by Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab.

In a statement aired by Radio Andulus, an Al Shabaab mouthpiece said, the blast had partially destroyed an African Union forces’ convoy in Mogadishu.

The group was ousted from the capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011, but still has a presence in large areas of southern Somalia and often stages attacks across Somalia.

Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

Al-Shabaab, which is waging an insurgency against the Somali government, has recently suffered several significant blows, losing most of its strongholds in southern and central to Somalia army and and African Union troops.

Caasimada Online
Mogadishu News Desk
Caasimada@live.com