(Mogadishu) Six people, including two civilians, were killed and nine others injured Saturday in a suicide attack on a military outpost on the outskirts of the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said.
The attack was claimed by radical Islamists Shebab.
According to witnesses interviewed by AFP, the suicide bomber drove his vehicle loaded with explosives towards the advanced military post of Ceelasha-Biyaha, in the western suburbs of Mogadishu, causing a powerful explosion which caused significant damage, including on neighboring houses.
“The Kharijites (term used by the authorities to designate the Shebab, Editor’s note), as they usually do, tried to bring a vehicle loaded with explosives and (pieces of) metal into Mogadishu. But after being denied access, they blew up the vehicle at the security forces base in Ceelasha-Biyaha,” Somali police spokesperson Sadik Dudishe said in a statement.
“Among the recorded victims, there are six dead, four members of the security forces and two civilians, and nine injured, including four civilians,” he added.
A witness, Mohamed Sharif, said he saw the bodies of five civilians.
“I was in a minibus very close to the explosion area, we were very lucky that none of the passengers on the bus were injured. I saw the bodies of five civilians, including an elderly man,” he said.
The Shebab, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, has been leading an insurgency since 2007 against the Somali government, supported by the international community, to establish Islamic law in this country in the Horn of Africa.
Driven out of the main cities in 2011-2012, they remain established in vast rural areas of the center and south of the country, from where they regularly carry out attacks against security, political and civilian targets.
Elected in May 2022, President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud declared a “total war” against the Shebab.
Government forces and clan militias, supported by the force of the African Union and American airstrikes, have been carrying out a military offensive in the center of the country for more than a year, which has made it possible to retake territories. Despite these setbacks, Shebab continued to carry out deadly attacks.