Somali militants say `Westerners` attack coastal base

Mogadishu: Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab said on Saturday that "Westerners" attacked a house in one of its coastal bases overnight in the town of Barawe, about 180 km south of the capital of Mogadishu, killing one rebel fighter. "Westerners in boats attacked our base at Barawe beach and one was martyred from our side," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab`s spokesman for military operations, told Reuters by telephone. A resident said he had heard a gunfight during the night.

It was not immediately clear who had been killed and why the Barawe base had been targeted specifically. The al Qaeda-linked group has said it carried out an attack on a Kenyan shopping mall two weeks ago which killed at least 67 people. Reuters