Al-Shabaab suicide bomber kills four in Somalia
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At least four people died, and nine were wounded on Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Somali capital.
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Four killed in Somalia in a suicide attack
According to Abdirahman Adan, a police officer stationed near the site, the assailant strolled into a Mogadishu tea store and detonated the explosive vest he was wearing.
"We have confirmed four dead, and nine others wounded," he said. "The casualties were taken to hospital."
Al-Shabaab, a Somali insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it targeted Somali soldiers receiving training at a Turkish-run military academy nearby. Soldiers stationed nearby, according to witnesses, frequented the tea establishment.
"The explosion destroyed the kiosk and the entire area is chaotic," said Mohamed Yare, one of the witnesses.
The incident happened just two days after Somalia's government Spokesperson was injured in a Mogadishu blast, which Al-Shabaab also claimed responsibility for.
On January 12, several people were killed in a second attack targeting a busy district of the capital by a suicide car bomber.
The attacks come as Somalia struggles to recover from a political crisis brought on by long-running conflicts over long-overdue elections.
The President and Prime Minister have been at odds over the process, which has been plagued by violence and is more than a year late.
The newest deal set a deadline on February 25 for the long-delayed legislative elections, which are the final step before a vote for a new president can take place.
The standoff has alarmed Somalia's international allies, who are concerned that it will draw attention away from the threat posed by Al-Shabaab, a violent rebel group that has been fighting the country's central government for more than a decade.
The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 after an offensive by an African Union force, but still, they control vast swathes of rural Somalia from where they launch regular attacks in the capital and elsewhere.
