Ten dead in suicide attack in Somali capital

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – At least 10 people were killed on Saturday when a suicide bomber struck makeshift kiosks in the Somali capital, beating himself hours after Islamist militants in Al Shabaab attacked two national army bases outside the city. said the government.

“A suicide bomber blew himself up under trees where poor mothers were selling tea, milk and khat (of narcotic leaf),” Information Ministry spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar told Reuters, adding that more people were going result in injuries in the attack.

There was no immediate comment from al Shabaab, who had previously claimed responsibility for the attacks on Bariire and Awdhigle army bases.

The army previously said there had been casualties on both sides in these attacks, but now it is in control.

The bases, located about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, were hit by two explosions, witnesses said. A third blast aimed at a convoy of troops heading towards the bases from the capital after the attack, they added.

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants have delivered years of attacks and imposed tolls on trade in a campaign to introduce a strict religious law.

Saturday’s attacks come amid intense fears that the group could try to exploit the vulnerabilities created by the failure to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which were to be held in February.

Hussein Nur, a military officer, said the army lost “several” soldiers in the attack on the bases, without giving an exact number.

The army sent reinforcements from other stations, which killed an unidentified number of attackers in the ensuing fight, he told Reuters.

The army had taken control of both bases and the surrounding area and “We are pursuing militants from the surrounding jungle,” he said.

Al Shabaab said he had launched a suicide attack with vehicles at Bariire base while simultaneously attacking the nearby Awdhigle base with a car bomb and fighters, to prevent troops stationed there from reinforcing Bariire.

“We attacked the Bariire base, burned three military vehicles and seized two vehicles,” Al Shabaab military spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters, referring to a brief occupation of Bariire.

A third vehicle-carrying explosive device struck a convoy of government troops running from Mogadishu with reinforcements, he said. He also said there had been casualties on both sides in the attacks.