Al-Shabab claims car blast that killed 8 in Somali capital
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The terrorists released a statement divulging they were targeting "foreign officers."
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The wreckage after the explosion in Mogadishu (Reuters)
A car bomb in the Somali capital of Mogadishu killed 8 on Wednesday. The attack was claimed by the terrorist group Al-Shaba, who claimed they were "targeting foreign officers."
In a nearby mosque, resident Mohamed Osman said the walls and roof were hit by the shock of the explosion.
"When I came out of the mosque, I saw several old houses collapsed, body parts on the street, hands, legs," Osman told Reuters.
The attack comes days after Somali leaders announced Sunday they had reached an agreement to complete parliamentary elections by February 25, following repeated delays that put stability on the line in the already troubled country.
The Somalian authorities had scheduled October 10, 2021, as a date for the presidential elections; however, the dispute between the president and the prime minister prevented the elections from happening.
Read more: Somalia: President suspends prime minister amid election dispute.
Local government officer Mohamed Abdi told AFP that the explosion "caused devastation in the area," warning that the death toll could be higher than expected.
Hassan Nur, another witness, said the blast was "so huge it has destroyed most of the buildings nearby the road and vehicles passing by the area. I saw several dead and wounded people strewn in the road."
Two weeks ago, heavily armed Al-Shabab fighters raided a town near Somalia's capital and killed 4.
The Al-Shabab militants raided Balcad, a town 30 kilometers from the capital. They were armed with machine guns and RPG rocket launchers, according to the police and some witnesses.
Among the 4 who died, 2 were members of the security forces. The violence also resulted in the injury of 8 people, according to police officer Abdullahi Mohamed. He continued to explain that the militants have been targeting security checkpoints in the raid which happened in the early morning to "terrorize the public."
Fears of Al-Shabab attacks rise
Analysts have warned that the internal dispute between the two leaders might hinder the effort of the Somali government in fighting Al-Shabab movement.
Al-Shabab, which is allied to Al-Qaeda, was driven out of Mogadishu a decade ago but eventually seized control of large areas of countryside and continue to conduct deadly attacks in the capital and elsewhere.
