Six killed in Mogadishu suicide attack
Six people, including two civilians, were killed, and nine others were wounded in a suicide attack on a military outpost in the outskirts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Saturday, as reported by the police.
This attack was claimed by the radical Islamist group, al-Shabaab.
Witnesses told AFP that a suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with explosives to the Ceelasha-Biyaha military post in the western suburbs of Mogadishu.
The subsequent powerful blast caused extensive damage, including nearby homes.
Somali police spokesman Sadik Dudishe stated, “The Kharijites (al-Shabaab), as they usually do, attempted to bring a vehicle loaded with explosives and metal into Mogadishu. But after they were denied access, they detonated the vehicle on the base of the security forces’ at Ceelasha-Biyaha”.
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The casualties recorded include six dead, with four from the security forces and two civilians, and nine wounded, four of them being civilians.
One witness, Mohamed Sharif, recounted, “I was riding in a minibus very close to the area of the explosion.
“We were very lucky none of the passengers of the bus was hurt.
“I saw the dead bodies of five civilians including an elderly man”.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab has been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed Somali government since 2007, with the aim of establishing Islamic law in the Horn of Africa country.
Although driven out of major cities in 2011-2012, they continue to hold large rural areas in the country’s center and north, from which they regularly launch attacks against security, political, and civilian targets.
Elected in May 2022, President Hassan Sheik Mohamoud declared an “all-out war” against al-Shabaab.
Government forces and clan militias, supported by African Union forces and US airstrikes, have been conducting a military offensive in central Somalia for over a year, successfully reclaiming territory.
Despite setbacks, al-Shabaab continues to carry out deadly attacks.
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