Somalia Attack: 16 dead, including 12 Burundi soldiers

Bujumbura - At least 16 soldiers of the peacekeeping force of African Union in Somalia (Amisom) were killed in Mogadishu on Thursday in the twin suicide car bomb claimed by the Islamist Shebab, according to a new record set Friday by the Burundian army.

•     "So far we have twelve dead," told AFP in Bujumbura a spokesman of the Burundian army, General Nduhayo Lazarus, revising upwards a previous record of ten Burundians killed.
  
      These deaths are in addition to four killed on the side of the Ugandan army, bringing the current toll of the attack to at least sixteen people, including the number two of AMISOM, Burundi General Juvenal Niyonguruza.
  
      Another senior officer in Burundi, the commander of the 34th Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Ndayisenga, among the victims, said General Nduhayo.
  
      The commander of AMISOM, General Nathan Mugisha Uganda, was slightly wounded.
  
      The attack, perpetrated at the very heart of the headquarters of the Amisom on Mogadishu airport, and claimed by the Shebab is the deadliest recorded by the peacekeeping force since its arrival in March 2007 in the Somali capital.
  
      Somalis have also been affected in the attack, but it we ignore the exactly number.
  
      "There are also a dozen injured (Burundi), including three in serious condition, who are all being treated at Nairobi," said the spokesman of the Burundian army.
  
      "We believe that the bodies of those killed were repatriated to Burundi tomorrow," he added.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.