MOGADISHU, Somalia – The African Union mission in Somalia known as ‘AMISOM’ says its forces have arrested two suspected Al Shabaab militants with bomb explosive triggers in Wanlaweyn town, some 90 km (55 miles) to the northwest of the capital of Mogadishu.
The AU convoys approached the black-spot as its soldiers disembarked and moved on foot 500 meters away from the road where two suspects with IED triggers were found, said in a statement released by AMISOM.
AMISOM says the suspects were arrested when the African Union peacekeeping forces were escorting a logistics convoy from near the capital of Mogadishu to Balidogle airbase.
Balidogle, an airbase some 70 miles northwest of Mogadishu, is where U.S. military experts train Somali forces and help them launch attacks on al-Shabab positions.
The two suspects were taken into Balidogle for further interrogation, the mission said.
Earlier this year, Somali armed group al Shabaab claimed to have killed three U.S. soldiers in a mortar attack on US military base in Balidogle.
The group said 3 US soldiers and five Somali members of a special commando, who were the base had been killed in the attack.
But, the United States has vehemently denied losing three of its soldiers in a terror attack northwest of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda linked group continues to hold small rural areas in central and southern Somalia
The group was pushed out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2011 after a joint offensive carried out by Somalia and African Union troops.
The rebel group wants to overthrow the weak UN-backed government in Somalia and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law.
