15 killed as al-Shabaab militants storm base in southern Somalia

At least 15 people, including 10 al-Shabaab militants and five Somali soldiers were killed on Monday after the militans stormed a military base in the south of the country, a military official said.

"The attack began when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into the entrance of the base, and then it was followed by heavily armed militants from different directions," said Mukhtar Aden Mohamed, a senior military official in the region.

"Following an hours-long assault by militants, our troops were able to repel them out of the area," he said, adding that 10 militants and five soldiers were killed in the battle near the port city of Kismayo in the Lower Juba region.

Al-Shabaab claimed a much higher death toll however, announcing on its Radio Andalus that they had killed 27 soldiers at the base.