{"id":10405,"date":"2016-06-09T07:01:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T11:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=10405"},"modified":"2016-06-09T07:03:21","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T11:03:21","slug":"al-shabab-attacks-ethiopian-base-in-somalia-claims-to-have-killed-over-40-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/10405","title":{"rendered":"al-Shabab Attacks Ethiopian Base in Somalia, Claims to Have Killed Over 40 Soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/5415289970_99bae6b11d.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-10404 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/5415289970_99bae6b11d-300x177.jpg\" alt=\"RESTORE HOPE\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/5415289970_99bae6b11d-300x177.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/5415289970_99bae6b11d-220x130.jpg 220w, http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/5415289970_99bae6b11d.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab claims to have killed over 40 Ethiopian soldiers during an attack on the African Union (AU) peacekeeping base on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The group with ties to al-Qaeda reportedly attacked the base located in Halgan, in central Somalia before dawn.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-36487435\">BBC<\/a>, the assault on the base, which is run by Ethiopian troops, began with a suicide car bomb ramming into the entrance.<\/p>\n<p>The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has confirmed the attack on the Ethiopian base. However, officials say Shabab has since been repelled.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopian soldiers in the base reportedly exchanged fire with the militants before being assisted by the Somali army.<\/p>\n<p>Shabab troops have reportedly been pushed back and are said to be on the run. Ethiopian and Somali troops are chasing them.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia is one of five African countries that is contributing troops to the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia.<\/p>\n<p>AU troops are fighting to protect Somalia&#8217;s internationally-backed government. AU forces aim to ensure peace and stability in the country afflicted by decades of war.<\/p>\n<p>Shabab has suffered significant defeats at the hands of the 22,000-strong peacekeeping force. However, the Islamist group continues to launch deadly attacks across Somalia and in neighboring countries.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the group launched an assault on a Kenyan military base in el-Ade, southwestern Somalia. The attack, which began after morning prayers, reportedly left over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/9968\">60 Kenyan soldiers<\/a> dead.<\/p>\n<p>Shabab is fighting to overthrow the government and turn Somalia into a fundamentally Islamic state.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58297778@N04\/5415289970\">U.S. Forces in Somalia &#8211; Department of Defense Joint Combat Camera Center DD-SD-00-00861<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/photopin.com\">photopin<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\">(license)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab claims to have killed over 40 Ethiopian soldiers during an attack on the African Union (AU) peacekeeping base on Thursday. The group with ties to al-Qaeda reportedly attacked the base located in Halgan, in central<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span> <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/10405\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,2860,1],"tags":[1767,54,4967,64],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10405"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10408,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10405\/revisions\/10408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}