MOGADISHU, Somalia Feb 22 (Garowe Online) - The African Union says eleven peacekeepers from Burundi were killed in Somalia Sunday in an "unprecedented" attack, Radio Garowe reports.

Witnesses near the compound of Somalia's old National University in the capital Mogadishu said two huge explosions occurred midday today, sending plumes of smoke into the air and terrifying residents weary of war and violence.

The old university campus is a base for AU peacekeepers from Burundi.

"These attacks have reached today an unprecedented level, resulting in the killing of 11 Burundian soldiers, while 15 others have sustained serious injuries," read the AU statement, as published by the Reuters news agency.

Muktar Robow "Abu Mansur," the Al Shabaab spokesman, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings on Mogadishu radio stations.

"Two of our men were martyred...they inflicted heavy damage on soldiers at a church," Abu Mansur claimed, while identifying the suicide bombers as Ahmed Sheikhdon Sidow Wehliye and Mursal Abdinur Mohamed Ali.

Abu Mansur demanded that AU soldiers leave Somalia or continue to face more attacks.

He said Al Shabaab welcomes all groups who want to find a solution to the Somali crisis, but denied having knowledge of a group of Somali Muslim scholars who recently issued a declaration calling on the AU force to leave Somalia within 120 days.

The scholars also called on Islamist rebels to stop the insurgency and allow AU peacekeepers time to withdraw.

Sunday's violence becomes the deadliest attack on AU soldiers since Ugandan soldiers deployed in Mogadishu in March 2007.

Source: Garowe Online