Somalia: At least five killed in attack in capital Mogadishu
An armed group set off a bomb on Sunday that killed five people and damaged buildings by the mayor’s office.
Police officers take up positions outside of the Mayor's office where an ongoing gun battle erupted following a reported explosion, in Mogadishu, on January 22, 2023. - A blast and gunfire has been heard in an ongoing attack at the mayoral offices in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said. "Terrorists blasted a vehicle loaded with explosives onto a perimeter wall of the Mogadishu mall which is next to the Banadir administration headquarters," police officer Abdullahi Mohamed said as witnesses said gunfire was still ringing near the mayor's office. (Photo by Hassan Ali ELMI / AFP)
Police officers take up positions outside the mayor's office where a gun battle erupted following a reported explosion in Mogadishu, Somalia [Hassan Ali Elmi/AFP]
Published On 22 Jan 2023
22 Jan 2023
Updated:
12 minutes ago
At least five people were killed in a blast near the mayor’s office in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, with gunfire erupting afterwards, the ministry of information has said.
Attackers from the al-Shabab group charged into the block that houses the office of Mogadishu’s mayor around noon and got caught in a firefight with security forces, the ministry and witnesses said on Sunday.
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Security killed six members of the armed group and cleared the area by about 6pm (3pm GMT), the ministry said on its Facebook page.
Al-Shabab has stepped up attacks in a show of resilience since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s government launched an offensive against the al Qaeda-linked group in August.
“We were in the office and we were deafened by a blast. We ran out. Gunfire followed,” Farah Abdullahi, who works in the mayor’s office, told Reuters.
Sixteen people were injured in the attack, Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance Services, said.
The mayor’s office is located in the local government headquarters building in a well-guarded area of Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab said in a statement its suicide bombers struck, “then foot fighters entered the building after killing the building guards”.
The armed group, which has been fighting the government since 2006 and seeking to impose its own interpretation of Islamic law, frequently carries out bombings and gun attacks across the country.
In a sign the government was expanding its offensive against the group into the country’s south, state TV for Jubbaland, one of the country’s semi-autonomous states, reported on Sunday that regional and Somalia federal forces had launched attacks on al-Shabab and taken control of Janay Abdale town from the armed group.
