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MOGADISHU. — Somalia’s Islamist Shebab insurgents claimed yesterday to be holding Ugandan troops hostage after an attack last week, although Kampala has said all its troops are accounted for. “The soldiers are in the mujahedeen jail,” Shebab spokesperson Abdiaziz Abu Musab said in a statement broadcast on the al-Qaeda-linked group’s Radio Andalus, but gave no further details on the alleged hostages.

“They are healthy, we will provide their names, ranks and other details very soon,” he added. Uganda has said 12 troops with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) died in the attack, with no prisoners taken, after Shebab militants overran a military camp in southern Somalia on 1 September. — AFP.