The African Union Mission has confirmed the attack in Halgan but said the enemy was successfully repulsed.
The BBC quoted residents in Halgan saying they had heard a huge bang followed by a heavy exchange of gunfire.
“Our fighters stormed the Halgan base of AMISOM … We killed 43 AU soldiers from Ethiopia in the fighting,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabab’s military operations spokesperson, told Reuters news agency.
He said “several” al-Shabab fighters had died in the raid but he did not give a figure.
“It was a huge blast. It destroyed the gate and parts of the base,” he said.
Ethiopia is one of five countries that are involved in a twenty-two thousand-strong AU mission in Somalia.
