- Al-Shabaab says it detonated a car bomb to breach AU's heavily fortified base in Mogadishu
- African Union: 5 Al-Shabaab were killed in the raid
- Some 20,000 African troops are in the war-torn nation to conduct "peace support operations"
Mogadishu (CNN) -- Five Al-Shabaab militants are dead after they attacked an African Union military base in Somalia on Thursday, AU officials said.
The militants attacked the Halane military base in Mogadishu, Somalia's largest base for African Union troops, according to the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Three AU soldiers and a civilian were wounded in the attack and five Al-Shabaab attackers were killed, AMISOM spokesman Ali Aden Houmed said. Two detonated themselves inside the Halane base and three were shot dead by AU troops during the raid.
AMISOM confirmed the attack via Twitter, saying that the situation at Halane "is safe" and under "full control."
The three wounded soldiers were also "commended for their gallant effort in controlling the situation," on Twitter.
A spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked terror group described the attack on the heavily fortified base -- which also houses several U.N. and international agencies -- on Radio Andalus, a pro-Al-Shabaab broadcaster.
"Our Mujahedeen forces detonated a car bomb at the entrance of the Halane compound ... then managed to enter the facility," Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab said. A firefight then broke out with troops, he said.
Al-Shabaab has been waging war in Somalia in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or sharia. Established in 2007, the U.N.-backed AMISOM currently has some 20,000 African Union troops deployed in the impoverished nation to "conduct peace support operations" and to "stabilize the situation" in the war-torn country.
