African Union troops killed five Al-Shabaab militants after they attacked an AU military base in Somalia, AU officials said. The militants attacked the Halane military base on Thursday in Mogadishu, Somalia's largest base for African Union troops, according to the African Union Mission in Somalia. Two militants detonated themselves inside the Halane base and three were shot dead by AU troops during the raid, AMISOM spokesman Ali Aden Houmed said. Three AU soldiers and a civilian died in the attack, AMISOM said on its website. The AMISOM statement said other personnel at Halane are "safe and secure." Some of the attackers wore Somali military uniforms during the lunchtime raid on the facility located close to Mogadishu International Airport, the AU said. A spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked terror group described the attack on the heavily fortified base -- which also houses several U.N. and international agencies -- on Radio Andalus, a pro-Al-Shabaab broadcaster. "Our Mujahedeen forces detonated a car bomb at the entrance of the Halane compound ... then managed to enter the facility," Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab said. A firefight then broke out with troops, he said.
