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AMISOM: Al-Shabab Plans Attacks Disguised as AU Troops


FILE - Soldiers serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) patrol outside a Mosque during Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at a Mosque in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, July 17, 2015.
FILE - Soldiers serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) patrol outside a Mosque during Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at a Mosque in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, July 17, 2015.

The African Union force in Somalia warns Al-Shabab militants are planning to disguise themselves as AU soldiers to carry out attacks.

AMISOM says it has information Al-Shabab fighters plan to dress in AMISOM uniforms and carry out atrocities in parts of Somalia controlled by the AU force and Somalia's federal government.

The goal, it says, is turn Somalis against AMISOM, which has protected the government for the past nine years.

The warning, issued Wednesday through the AU force's Twitter account, says Al-Shabab obtained the uniforms from AMISOM camps.

Military pallbearers stand to attention next to the coffins of four Kenyan soldiers who were killed in Somalia, at a ceremony to receive their bodies which were airlifted to Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.
Military pallbearers stand to attention next to the coffins of four Kenyan soldiers who were killed in Somalia, at a ceremony to receive their bodies which were airlifted to Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.

Al-Shabab has launched three major raids on AMISOM bases in southern Somalia over the past year. The most recent, in the town of Elbe last month, reportedly killed dozens of Kenyan troops, although Kenya has yet to release a final death toll.

Kenya is one of five countries with troops in Somalia to fight Al-Shabab, along with Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda.

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