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Somalia: Al-Shabaab claim responsibility in car bomb blast
A car bomb has exploded close to a convoy of United Nations vehicles near Mogadishu’s international airport on Thursday, killing 6 Somalis on the street, officials said. Al-Qaeda-linked militants have claimed responsibility.
A U.N. vehicle was damaged but said no U.N. staff were injured, said Nicholas Kay, U.N. representative to Somalia. He said 4 security escorts were lightly wounded.
Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab, Somalia’s most lethal militant group in claiming responsibility, boasted that the attack had killed U.N. personnel.
The remote controlled blast killed six Somalis and wounded eight, said police Col. Ahmed Hassan Maalin. The blast occurred at the city’s busy airport junction. The heavily fortified Mogadishu airport is the base for the U.N., other international diplomats and African Union forces that help support Somalia’s government.
Al-Shabaab which once controlled most of Mogadishu, was pushed out of the city in 2011. But it continues to carry out sporadic attacks in the city.
Source: Associated Press