Kulbiyow district officer killed in Al-Shabaab attack on KDF military base

Kulbiyow district officer was reportedly killed in Al-Shabaab  attack on Kenyan troops at a military base in Somalia Friday.

Mohamed Tohyare Noah, who was head of Kulbiyow town was said to be inside the camp when hundreds of heavily armed Al-Shabaab fighters stormed the based.

A local resident who asked anonymity said the officer used to spend his night at the KDF military Base in the town after several assassination attempt on his life by Al-Shabaab failed.

The onslaught which lasted for hours had casualties on both side (AL-Shabaab and Kenyan soldiers).

Al-Shabaab claimed to have  killed at least 57 soldiers.

Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab also said they took full control of the camp and killed several soldiers before withdrawing later in the afternoon.

However, Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman Col. Paul Njuguna disputed Al-Shabaab’s claim of killing at least 51 soldiers, saying the Kenyans fought back before retreating to a nearby area.

“During this engagement KDF lost two officers and seven servicemen. Fifteen KDF soldiers who were injured during the engagement have been evacuated to Defence Forces Memorial Hospital for further medical attention,” he said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

In January last year a Kenyan base at El Adde was attacked and overrun by Al Shabab fighters who claimed to have killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers. The government refused to give its own toll.

Al-Shabab has previously attacked peacekeeping missions in Somalia, as it attempts to topple the western-backed government in Mogadishu.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) is a 22,000-strong force comprising soldiers from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.