MOGADISHU: A bombing claimed by insurgents killed five civilians and injured six more in the Somali capital on Wednesday, a spokesman for the city’s mayor said, underscoring the militants’ ability to carry out attacks despite territorial losses.
Bombings are a near-daily occurrence in Mogadishu. Most are claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militia, which is fighting to overthrow the weak UN-backed government and drive out the African Union peacekeeping force that supports it.
“We have confirmed that five civilians, including a mother and her son, have died,” said Abdifatah Omar Halane, spokesman for the Mogadishu mayor.
A Reuters reporter at the scene saw burned bodies and a wrecked car near a damaged police checkpoint.
A spokesman for Al-Shabab’s military operations said one of the group’s fighters was killed in the incident.
“One mujahid (fighter) was martyred after he targeted security officials with his car bomb,” said the spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab.
Since withdrawing from Mogadishu in 2011, Al-Shabab has lost control of most of Somalia’s cities and towns. But it still retains a strong presence in swathes of the south and center.
Also on Wednesday, eight Kenyan security officers were killed on the Kenyan side of the Somali border in two separate roadside bombings.
In Mandera, in the extreme northeast of Kenya, a governor’s convoy was blown up by what the Kenyan Red Cross said appeared to have been a land mine.
“Unfortunately I lost five of my security officers including my personal bodyguard in an attack on my convoy,” Mandera Governor Ali Roba said in a Facebook post.
Al-Shabab claimed both that attack and an earlier one further south in Liboi, also close to the border.
There, three policemen were killed when their truck hit an improvised explosive device (IED), North Eastern regional commissioner Mohamud Ali Saleh told Reuters.
“All the dead officers are from one work station,” he said. “From past incidences, it is easy to see that even this one is the work of our enemy, Al-Shabab. They plant these IEDs to target our security people.”
The Kenyan Red Cross tweeted that another eight officers had been wounded.
Al-Shabab’s military operation spokesman, told Reuters: “This afternoon, we attacked the convoy of Ali Roba, Mandera county chief, with a roadside bomb. We killed five of his bodyguards and destroyed one car.”
He also claimed the Liboi attack for Al-Shabab: “We destroyed the police car. Some died and others were injured.”
Garissa county, where the Liboi incident happened, has suffered several Al-Shabab attacks in recent years, including an assault on a university in 2015 that killed 148 people.
Adding to the violence, a small militant group in the north of Somalia has split from the main insurgency and declared allegiance to Daesh. That group claimed responsibility for a bombing in the northern city of Bosasso that killed five people on Tuesday.
Somalia has been mired in civil war since 1991. It is also suffering from a regional drought that threatens to tip its population of 12 million into famine.
Bombings are a near-daily occurrence in Mogadishu. Most are claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militia, which is fighting to overthrow the weak UN-backed government and drive out the African Union peacekeeping force that supports it.
“We have confirmed that five civilians, including a mother and her son, have died,” said Abdifatah Omar Halane, spokesman for the Mogadishu mayor.
A Reuters reporter at the scene saw burned bodies and a wrecked car near a damaged police checkpoint.
A spokesman for Al-Shabab’s military operations said one of the group’s fighters was killed in the incident.
“One mujahid (fighter) was martyred after he targeted security officials with his car bomb,” said the spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab.
Since withdrawing from Mogadishu in 2011, Al-Shabab has lost control of most of Somalia’s cities and towns. But it still retains a strong presence in swathes of the south and center.
Also on Wednesday, eight Kenyan security officers were killed on the Kenyan side of the Somali border in two separate roadside bombings.
In Mandera, in the extreme northeast of Kenya, a governor’s convoy was blown up by what the Kenyan Red Cross said appeared to have been a land mine.
“Unfortunately I lost five of my security officers including my personal bodyguard in an attack on my convoy,” Mandera Governor Ali Roba said in a Facebook post.
Al-Shabab claimed both that attack and an earlier one further south in Liboi, also close to the border.
There, three policemen were killed when their truck hit an improvised explosive device (IED), North Eastern regional commissioner Mohamud Ali Saleh told Reuters.
“All the dead officers are from one work station,” he said. “From past incidences, it is easy to see that even this one is the work of our enemy, Al-Shabab. They plant these IEDs to target our security people.”
The Kenyan Red Cross tweeted that another eight officers had been wounded.
Al-Shabab’s military operation spokesman, told Reuters: “This afternoon, we attacked the convoy of Ali Roba, Mandera county chief, with a roadside bomb. We killed five of his bodyguards and destroyed one car.”
He also claimed the Liboi attack for Al-Shabab: “We destroyed the police car. Some died and others were injured.”
Garissa county, where the Liboi incident happened, has suffered several Al-Shabab attacks in recent years, including an assault on a university in 2015 that killed 148 people.
Adding to the violence, a small militant group in the north of Somalia has split from the main insurgency and declared allegiance to Daesh. That group claimed responsibility for a bombing in the northern city of Bosasso that killed five people on Tuesday.
Somalia has been mired in civil war since 1991. It is also suffering from a regional drought that threatens to tip its population of 12 million into famine.
