Somali insurgents hit the African Union's (AU) main base in Mogadishu today with two suicide car bombs, killing at least nine people.
Hospital sources said at least seven more people were killed in artillery battles that broke out afterwards. Burundi's army said the deputy commander of the AU mission AMISOM was among the dead. Uganda said its force commander was wounded.
Just days after the rebels vowed to avenge the US killing of a top al-Qaeda suspect, a witness said two UN-marked cars drove into the base followed by two pick-ups carrying government troops.
"We thought they were real UN cars carrying white people, but moments later deafening thunder shook the ground," he told Reuters. "The area was covered with flames and clouds of smoke."
A Reuters reporter had earlier seen six wounded soldiers carried away from the site of the explosions, some bleeding heavily, while thick smoke poured into the sky over the capital.
Among the dead were some Somalis who had been receiving medical treatment at the heavily-guarded AU base, witnesses said. Somali government officials were meeting representatives of the AU peacekeeping mission there at the time.
It looked to be the worst attack on the 5,000-strong force since 11 Burundians were killed and 28 wounded in February by two suicide bombers - one in a car, one with a suicide vest - who infiltrated another base. It also followed one of the most violent months the city has seen in 20 years.
An Al Shabaab spokesman told Reuters the attacks were to avenge the death of Kenyan-born Salah Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was killed in southern Somalia on Monday in a raid by US special forces.
Western security agencies say lawless Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.
Reuters