Two African Union peacekeepers were injured on Saturday when Somalia's al Shabaab rebels attacked one of the mission's bases in Mogadishu, a spokesman for the force said. The al Qaeda-allied insurgents are battling to overthrow Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and impose their own version of sharia law on the nation.
The 9,000-strong AU peacekeeping force propping up the government and fighting al Shabaab is made up of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi. "Al Shabaab attacked us at the former steel factory which is beyond the Mogadishu stadium. Fighting has subsided but it is still going on," said Paddy Ankunda, the AU mission's spokesman.
Residents in the area said they heard explosions before gunfire erupted between the two sides. An al Shabaab spokesman, however, said the base has fallen into rebel hands and "many" peacekeepers had been killed.
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