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Somalia: Death toll rises in deadly al-Shabaab attack on supreme court
A barrage of bullets and two car bomb blasts rattled Mogadishu on Sunday when nine al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab Islamic extremists stormed Somalia’s main court complex, officials said, in a two-hour attack that shows the country’s most dangerous militant group may be down but not defeated.
A preliminary death toll stood at 16, including all nine attackers has now risen to 20. The government didn’t immediately publicize the number of security forces, government employees and civilians who died during the attack.
The assault was the most serious in Mogadishu since al-Shabaab was forced out of the capital in August 2011. The al-Shabaab controls far less territory today than in recent years, and its influence appears to be on the decline, but Sunday’s attack proved the extremists are still capable of pulling off well-planned, audacious assaults.
The top U.N. official for Somalia, Augustine P. Mahiga, said he was shocked and outraged by the attack. Mahiga said the total number of dead wasn’t clear, but that reports indicated that “many innocent civilians were killed including women and at least one child.”
The attack on the Supreme Court complex began at around 12:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. EST), sparking running battles with police.
The militants took an unknown number of hostages during the siege. Many other government workers and civilians in the court complex — a confusing labyrinth of buildings and rooms — hid while fearing for their lives.
The complex and sustained nature of the assault on the court system suggested the extremists hoped to inflict severe casualties. Later, a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle carrying Turkish citizens, killing two. On a Twitter feed believed to belong to the militants, al-Shabaab appeared to take credit for the attack. A posting said five militants from the “Martyrdom Brigade” took part in the “daring” attack.
Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon dismissed the attack as a “pointless and pathetic act” that he said would have no effect on the government’s commitment to progress.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Somalia is moving forward but the enemy of Somalia and “of all mankind” is trying to prevent the country from prospering. “I want the terrorists to know that our country, Somalia, is moving and will keep moving forward and will not be prevented to achieve the ultimate noble goal, a peaceful and stable Somalia, by a few desperate terrorists,” Mohamud said.
Ugandan troops stationed in Mogadishu as part of the African Union force arrived at the scene once the attack started and began taking up sniper positions on rooftops.
The Supreme Court was in session and it is speculated that the court’s chief justice may have been the target of the assault.
The court complex is a confusing maze of buildings and rooms, allowing for plenty of places to hide but also for many places for gunmen to take hostages. The armed men forced their way inside the complex and immediately set off an explosion.
Mogadishu’s main government center is heavily guarded with multiple security checks. However, the security at the court complex is not nearly as strong. The Ugandan troops who arrived on scene began pushing back on-lookers shortly after the attack began.
Militant attacks in Mogadishu are blamed on fighters from al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group in Somalia. The al-Shabaab ruled Mogadishu from roughly 2006 until August 2011, when African Union and Somali forces pushed them out of the city. Since then the al-Shabaab extremists have launched suicide bombings on the capital city.
Despite those intermittent attacks, Mogadishu is generally considered more peaceful today than most of the previous seven years.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press