Conflicting reports after 'scores killed' in Somalia attack

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

The Islamist extremist group al-Shabab and the Kenyan military had conflicting reports Friday about an incident that was said to have killed scores of people.

It came after militants attacked a Kenyan army base in the town of Kulbiyow in southern Somalia's Lower Jubba region, close to the border with Kenya.

Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu-Musab, a spokesman for al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabab, told the Associated Press that its fighters killed at least 51 soldiers in the early morning attack.

Kenyan military spokesman P.M. Njuguna denied the claim, the AP reported. The news agency cited Kenyan authorities saying that “scores” of militants were killed when soldiers repelled the assault.

Al-Shabab often overstates the deaths from its attacks while Kenyan authorities usually underplay their country's losses, according to AFP.

Suicide bombers in trucks were the first to attack, and a number of militants then entered the camp, AFP reported.

“Fighters have taken control of the base and the overall Kolbiyow area after massacring the Kenyan infidels,” an al-Shabab statement carried by the news agency said.

Njuguna added: "We are engaging the enemy and we have actually repulsed them, but it is ongoing."

The Kenyan soldiers are serving as African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, where al-Shabab is fighting to impose a strict version of Islam.

The attack comes days after at least eight victims were killed and 14 injured after al-Shabab extremists stormed a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Four militants were also killed as Somali security forces fought to end the siege, according to media reports.