Somali blast kills two generals and seven guards

Somali blast kills two generals and seven guards
In this file photo, Somali policeman walks past destroyed shops after a car bomb attack at a busy junction in the Wadajir district of the capital Mogadishu, Somalia Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (AP)
Updated 06 December 2018
Follow

Somali blast kills two generals and seven guards

Somali blast kills two generals and seven guards

MOGADISHU: Nine Somali soldiers including two generals were killed on Thursday by a blast just outside the capital Mogadishu, militants and an army official said.
Extremist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility, saying it had destroyed a military pick-up truck carrying the generals and their seven bodyguards near Dhanaane village just outside Mogadishu on Thursday afternoon.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, identified the slain generals as Omar Aden and Abdi Ali.
"We destroyed their pick-up with a roadside bomb near Dhanaane village," he told Reuters.
A military official who identified himself as Captain Mohamed confirmed to Reuters the two generals and their guards had been killed while others were injured.
Al-Shabaab has for years been fighting to topple Somalia's Western-backed central government and install its own rule based on a strict interpretation of sharia law.
The country has been gripped by insecurity and lawlessness since the early 1990s.