Government building attacked
Deputy minister among those killed by extremists in suicide-bombing and shoot-out
A GUN battle between Somalia’s security forces and Islamist group al-shabaab’s fighters in the capital Mogadishu yesterday has ended, leaving 15 people dead, police said.
Fighting broke out at a building housing the country’s labour and works ministries after militants detonated a car bomb.
The al-qaeda-linked al-shabab extremist group has claimed responsibility.
The group’s spokesperson said one of its fighters had rammed the building with a suicide car bomb, allowing others to enter.
Somali security forces exchanged gunfire with at least five attackers in their attempt to rescue public servants who were trapped inside the Mogadishu building, Captain Mohamed Hussein said.
Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, Somalia’s deputy minister of labour and social affairs, was killed in his ground-floor office shortly after gunmen stormed the building, he said.
The building is located near the headquarters of the Somali intelligence agency.
As the attack unfolded, gunfire could be heard from inside the building. White smoke billowed from the scene, according to witnesses.
A similar attack targeting a busy area in Mogadishu last month killed at least 24 people. That attack also began with two car bombs exploding in a popular area of the city where Somalis were relaxing at restaurants.
Al-shabab, the most active Islamic extremist group in Africa, has been fighting for years to take power and create an Islamic state in Somalia.
The group continues to mount lethal attacks despite being pushed out of Mogadishu. It mostly operates from rural areas in the country’s south.
AU peacekeepers stationed in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country have helped Somali forces to keep al-shabaab fighters at bay.
The group has carried out many deadly attacks in neighbouring Kenya in retaliation over Kenya’s deployment in 2011 of peacekeepers in Somalia.
The US military has carried out a number of deadly airstrikes in recent months against al-shabab. |