Al Shabab kills UPDF soldiers in Mogadishu
By Our Staff Writer – 30th Aug 2010
Al-Shabab Fighters
Four Ugandan African Union peacekeepers have been killed by Al-Shabab mortar fire in the Somali capital Mogadishu; the BBC has reported.
The four UPDF soldiers were killed when an insurgent mortar hit Somalia’s presidential palace where the soldiers were stationed.
“These opposition groups fire from positions three to four kilometres from our positions. It was a pure coincidence that the mortar was able to kill four and injure eight of our soldiers”, said Major Barigye Bahoku, the AU peace mission spokesman.
According to the BBC, it wasn’t clear if any Somalis had been killed in the attack that claimed the lives of the four Ugandan soldiers and injured eight others. Uganda is just one of two African countries that have sent troops to Somalia on the AU’s peacekeeping mission. The other country is Burundi.
On the 11th of July, Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the double bomb blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala that claimed the lives of at least 76 people. The battle for control of Mogadishu has intensified in the past week. Last Monday, a suicide attack on a hotel killed at least 32 people, including six Somali MPs. The Islamist group Al-Shabab said it had carried out the attack. If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent. Never miss out again.
