Al Shabaab militants have overrun a Kenya Defence Force military base at Kulbiyow, Somalia.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for al Shabaab said its fighters killed at least 57 Kenyans at the base in the southern town of Kulbiyow, near the Kenyan border.
The spokesperson was quoted by both Reuters News Agency and the Star in Kenya saying that two mujahedeen rammed suicide car bombs into the base in Kulbiyow town before storming it.
We are pursuing the Kenyan soldiers who ran away into the woods," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters about Friday's attack. "After hand-to-hand fighting, we have taken over the base," he is quoted.
But Kenyan military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Njuguna dismissed the claim.
Today's attack comes a year after Al Shabaab ambushed a Kenyan base at El Adde. According to soldiers who survived the attack then, Al Shabaab was armed with heavy and sophisticated weapons which gave KDF soldiers very little time to organize and return fire.
However, they say they fought for close to 10 hours with the militants before they were overpowered. over 100 soldiers were lost in the battle.
-URN