Somalia’s army chief survives car bombing

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s new military chief survived a suicide car bomb attack Sunday just moments after he was sworn in with a mandate to launch a new offensive against Islamic extremists. Thirteen people were killed in the attack.

Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale had just been sworn into office and was traveling in a convoy with senior military officials when the bomb exploded near Somalia’s defense ministry compound in Mogadishu, police said.

Five soldiers and at least eight civilians traveling in a passing minibus were killed, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a Somali police officer.

Somalia’s Islamist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed the attack.

A huge cloud of smoke billowed over the scene and heavy gunfire was heard in the area. The wreckage of the minibus destroyed by the powerful bomb was in the street, with a pool of blood under the vehicle. Burning debris littered the scene.

Soldiers fired in the air to disperse a crowd near a car of an electricity company that was destroyed by the blast.

“What happened here was a painful tragedy — the blast struck two packed minibuses and no one survived,” said Abdifitah Halane, a spokesman for Mogadishu’s mayor.

“There is flesh and blood everywhere,” he said looking at the destruction caused by the blast.