[AnNahar] Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab commandos on Thursday attacked an African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
military base in central Somalia dressed in stolen government army uniforms, killing at least two soldiers from Djibouti, the AU force said.
The Shabaab said their gunnies stormed the compound of a hotel where Djiboutian troops with the AU force were based in the town of Bulla Burde, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, their front man Abdulaziz Abu Musab told AFP.
"The area command headquarters (of the AU force) was attacked, these attacks will continue," Musab said, boasting to have killed six AU troops.
However,
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Elio Yao, front man for the U.N.-backed AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM), rejected the claims, saying the gunnies failed to enter the compound but had killed two Djiboutians in a firefight.
The two Shabaab fighters "dressed in military fatigues or uniform" were also killed, Yao said.
"There was an exchange of fire at the check point, during that exchange the two Djiboutians were killed... the attackers were not able to enter the compound," he added.
The attack is the latest by the Shabaab in retaliation for the AU offensive to root them out of areas of the war-torn country still under their control.
Residents reported a heavy blast followed by fierce gunfire and kabooms for about hour, beginning around dawn on Thursday.
"There was a loud kaboom before a firefight broke out," said Ahmed Abdirisak, a local resident.
"There was heavy exchange of gunfire, it continued about an hour.. dead bodies were strewn around," said resident Hassan Mohammed.
The town was seized from the Shabaab in March.
After withdrawing from fixed positions in the capital Mogadishu nearly three years ago, the Shabaab have lost most large towns to the AU and government soldiers. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
they still regularly launch guerrilla raids.
Recent Shabaab attacks in Somalia have targeted key areas of government, or the security forces, in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities and AU troops that they are winning the war.
The Islamists have also launched attacks against AU nations in the region who have contributed troops to the force.
In May, at least one person was killed and several maimed when two jacket wallahs blew themselves up in a restaurant in Djibouti, the first attack claimed by the Shabaab since Djibouti joined the AU force in 2011.
The Shabaab have also claimed massacres on Kenya's coast region in which over 60 people have been killed, although Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has blamed "local political networks" for the attacks.
Survivors of the attacks last week in Kenya's Lamu district reported gunnies speaking Somali and carrying Shabaab flags, executing non-Moslems and saying their actions were Dire Revenge™ for Kenya's military presence in Somalia as part of the AMISOM force. 
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