Somalia

At least 17 people have been killed after Islamist gunmen attacked a popular beachside restaurant in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, according to Somali police.

Reuters quoted police officer Osman Nur as saying: "The operation ended at 3am last night [Thursday] and at least 17 civilians were killed."

The al-Shabab militant group said its members had set off two car bombs at the Beach View Cafe on Mogadishu's Lido beach, and engaged in a gun battle for hours with government troops.

A video of Donald Trump has been used as part of a recruitment video issued by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, a monitoring group has said.

A clip showing Trump’s public call for a "total and complete shutdown" on Muslims entering the US was included in a propaganda video released by the Islamist extremists in Somalia, according to SITE monitoring.

The 51-minute film shows America as a racist society, and includes documentary footage alongside clips from extremists urging Muslims to turn against the West.

Trump appears in the film alongside footage of the militant leader Anwa al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011, saying Muslims in the US would face a choice between leaving for Islamic countries or staying at home to fight the West.

The film was distributed on Twitter on Friday by the al-Kataib Media Foundation, an Islamist militant organisation, SITE reported.

Trump was widely criticised for his call for bar Muslims following of the San Bernadino mass shooting by alleged extremists Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik.

Islamic militants from the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group have reportedly attacked a remote African Union base in Somalia, causing many casualties.

The African Union mission confirmed there had been an early morning attack on their outpost in the village of Lego, but did not provide any further details.

However, Mohammed Haji, an official in the Lower Shabelle region, said the militants killed some 25 combatants after attacking the base entrance with a suicide car bomb.

"They managed to infiltrate the entrance after the blast," he said. "It was a complex attack."

The governor of Lower Shabelle, Abdiqadir Mohamed Siidi, said a minister for the regional South-Western State and the commissioner of Lego were now missing.

"During the attack they also beheaded women and they are still in control of large parts of the area," he said.

At least six people have been killed in an explosion on board a bus carrying UN employees in northern Somalia, officials said.

Colonel Ali Salad, a senior police officer in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, said foreign nationals and Somalis were killed during the blast in the regional capital of Garowe.

The UN representative to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, condemned the attack, saying he was "shocked and appalled by loss of life".

The al Qaida-linked al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group's Andalus radio.

The bomb appeared to have been planted under a seat and then detonated by remote control, police official Yusuf Ali said.

The death toll of an attack on a government building in Somalia by al-Shabaab militants has risen to 10, a government spokesman has revealed.

Two solider and eight civilians were among those killed in the raid at the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, along with seven Al Shabaab members, while a number of others were injured including the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry and a press officer, according to spokesman Ridwaan Haji.

The Islamist militants stormed the building in the Somali capital earlier today and opened fire on those inside after setting off two major explosions from a bike and a car.

Police Col Hussein Ibrahim said one of the soldiers killed was with the African Union peacekeeping force.