AU peacekeepers in Somalia "cut trench system, kill 6 foreign fighters"

African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces in Somalia on Sunday said they killed six Islamist fighters and destroyed a mile-long trench system used by Islamist rebels for weapons smuggling and movement of fighters in and out of government-held areas in Mogadishu.

In a statement the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia known as AMISOM said the discovery of the under-ground tunnel, which it described as a major success, came after fierce battles over the past two days in the capital Mogadishu.

"The discovery and closure of this tunnel is a major step forward in the stabilization effort in the city. The extremists were using the trench and tunnel system to infiltrate fighters closer to AMISOM positions without detection," Barigye Ba-Hoku, spokesman for AMISOM said.

The spokesman said the trench systems also acted as a protected logistic resupply and casualty evacuation route.

"These (trench systems) are part of the new tactics being employed as a result of foreign influence, which has now effectively taken over control of the extremists," Ba-Hoku said in the statement.

AMISOM said that during the fighting over the past 36 hours at least six foreign Al-Qaeda connected commanders have been killed and dozens of Al Shabaab fighters have been wounded.

It identified the names of the dead fighters who they said were from Yemen, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Syria and a sixth of unknown nationality.

AMISOM confirmed it had lost two of its soldiers and that an unspecified number of others were also wounded as a result of the latest clashes in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile Islamist fighters of Al Shabaab for their part presented to the media the dead bodies of a Somali government soldier and AU peacekeeper they said were killed during the weekend fighting in Mogadishu.

The group also displayed a small cache of guns and ammunition they claimed to have captured from the government forces and AU peacekeeping forces.

The Islamist group controls much of south and center of the war ravaged east African country while Somali government forces with the help of 8,000-strong AU peacekeeping troops based in Mogadishu runs only few block of the seaside city.

Source: Xinhua