Chinese news agency Xinhua reported earlier that at least 50 Kenyan soldiers were killed in the attack while the militants claimed a toll of 63. “Al-Shabab captured the camp and many Kenyan soldiers”, Mohamud said.
“Once we come to an end of this battle, we will have information on number of casualties and proper account of what happened”.
African Union soldiers, shown on a recent patrol in Mogadishu, are frequent targets by Somali Islamic militants.
Although al-Shabab is notorious for exaggerating its successes, Amisom confirmed “an attack on our troops in El-Adde”, as did Kenyan Defense Forces spokesman David Obonyo.
Al-Shabab was ousted from the capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011, but still has a presence in large areas of southern Somalia and often stages attacks across the country.
Al-Shabab has waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2006 to impose its version of Islamic law.
According to the officials of the Somali army, the blast demolished the entrance to the military base in the town of El-Ade, Somalia, slaughtering dozens of Kenyan soldiers and allowing heavily armed jihadist militants to storm the base.
Kenya will not be “cowed by cowards”, the President has said in his condolence message to the families of soldiers killed in an attack in Somalia on Friday.
Hussein said: “They first rammed a suicide vehicle bomb into the gate of the Kenyan forces base in El-Adde, about 93 kilometers from the Kenyan border”. John Stupart, managing director of the African Defence Review, said the struggle to maintain a state of readiness amid rolling deployments at Amisom bases made them ideal targets for al-Shabaab. Musab added that the forces ran away from the bases.
The group, which has ties with al-Qaida, has also carried out many deadly attacks inside Kenya.
One year prior to that, Al-Shabaab killed 65 people in a 24-hour period in and around Mpeketoni.
