African Union rejects al-Shabab 'propaganda' in Somalia

The African Union has denied that 70 bodies displayed by Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab were those of its troops killed in fighting. Al-Shabab showed the bodies to journalists, claiming the Burundian soldiers had been killed in Mogadishu on Thursday. An AU spokesman dismissed the claim as propaganda and said 10 of its soldiers had been killed and two were missing. The AU has 9,000 troops in Somalia to back the weak interim government. In August, al-Shabab announced a "tactical withdrawal" from Mogadishu, but fighting has continued and two suicide bombs have exploded in the city this month. Al-Shabab showed the bodies to journalists on the outskirts of the capital. It said they were all Burundian peacekeepers. An AU spokesman said al-Shabab had dressed up their own dead troops in uniforms. BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says that in the past, the AU has been reluctant to admit to heavy losses. Al-Shabab has been weakened but the ongoing battle for total control of Mogadishu and the recent suicide bombings show that the capital is still far from being stable, he says.