Shabaab fighters attacked an Ethiopian army base in central Somalia early Thursday, in the latest raid targeting foreign soldiers deployed as part of an African Union force in the country.
The Al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked the base in Halgan in Hiran region, the group said in a statement distributed on its Telegram messaging channel.
On its Twitter account, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) comprising troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda confirmed "an attempted Shabaab attack" but gave no casualty figures.
Residents in the area close to Halgan said the attack began when a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the entrance to the base, after which jihadist gunmen fought their way in.
The shooting had died down by mid-morning Thursday.
The Shabaab launched this style of "swarming" attack a year ago and have since overrun forward operating bases manned by Burundian troops in Lego in June, Ugandan troops in Janale in September and Kenyan troops in El Adde in January.
The contributing countries refuse to confirm casualty numbers but it is believed that scores of AMISOM have been killed in each attack.
In the El Adde attack alone more than 140 Kenyan soldiers are believed to have been killed, although the Kenyan government has refused to confirm any numbers.