AU says 10 peacekeepers killed in Somalia battleBy AFRICAREVIEW.COM and Agencies | Friday, October 21  2011 at  13:37

The African Union has said 10 peacekeepers were Thursday killed during a fierce fight with Somali's al Shabaab forces in Mogadishu.

AP news agency quoted the peacekeepers spokesman, Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, as saying Friday that casualties occurred when AU soldiers took the last neighbourhood held by Somali insurgents in Mogadishu on Thursday.

Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said two soldiers were missing and an armoured vehicle had been burned.

However, the al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab put the figure of the killed AU soldiers at 70.

The al Shabaab displayed "over 70" dead bodies outside Mogadishu on Thursday, which they claimed were African Union peacekeepers killed in battle.

If verified, it would be the worst massacre and largest single defeat that the AU force in Mogadishu has suffered in some four years of bloody battles defending the weak Western-backed government against the hardline Shabaab.

"We have killed more than 70 of the enemy soldiers today... We have inflicted heavy losses on them and you can see their dead bodies," al Shabaab spokesperson Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said, displaying the bodies in the dust to reporters.