Four dead in Somali capital car bombing
MOGADISHU: Four people were killed and nine wounded when a car bomb exploded near a restaurant in central Mogadishu Thursday, police said, as the al-Shabaab jihadist group claimed responsibility.
The blast “was caused by a car loaded with explosives, we perceive that it was parked near a restaurant along the road,” Somali police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP.
The restaurant was near a security checkpoint in the Somali capital, not far from the presidential palace.
The road in which the blast occurred houses eateries and tea shops.
“The explosion was very heavy, and we could see the smoke and dust overwhelmed the whole area, it was a car bomb,” said witness Ibrahim Farey.
Another, Aisha Hassan, said several vehicles were destroyed and buildings damaged.
Al-Shabaab said it had planted the bomb, claiming in a statement that its ‘fighters targeted one of the checkpoints of the palace apostates.’
The nationalist, Islamist group, linked to al-Qaeda, is fighting an armed insurrection in Somalia against what it sees as heretic and foreign influence. Earlier this month, at least 20 people died in an attack in Mogadishu which saw al-Shabaab jihadists battling security forces for nearly 24 hours.
The Shabaab were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 by the 22,000-strong African Union mission AMISOM, and have had to abandon most of their strongholds.
But they still control vast rural areas and remain the key threat to peace in Somalia.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, elected in February 2017, has declared a state of war against the group. — AFP