In Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, a suicide bomber claimed six lives

Police said that a suicide assault on a military station on the outskirts of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday left six people dead, including two civilians, and nine others injured.
Al-Shabaab, a hardline Islamist organization, claimed responsibility for the assault.

Witnesses told AFP that a suicide bomber drove an explosives-filled car to the Ceelasha-Biyaha military outpost in Mogadishu’s western suburbs. They said that surrounding residences suffered significant damage as a result of the ensuing tremendous detonation.

“The Kharijites (al-Shabaab), as they usually do, tried to bring a vehicle loaded with explosives and metal into Mogadishu,” said Sadik Dudishe, a spokesperson for the Somali police.

“But after they were denied access, they have detonated the vehicle on the base of the security forces at the Ceelasha-Biyaha,” he said.

“The number of the casualties recorded is six dead — four of them from the security forces and two civilians — and nine wounded, four of them civilians.”

Mohamed Sharif, one of the witnesses, claimed to have witnessed the remains of five people.

“I was riding in a minibus very close to the area of the explosion,” stated the man. “We were really fortunate that no one on the bus was wounded.

“I saw the dead bodies of five civilians including an elderly man,” he said.

Since 2007, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab has been fighting the internationally supported Somali government in an effort to impose Islamic rule in the nation in the Horn of Africa.

They are still present in sizable rural regions in the country’s center and north, where they often launch assaults against political, security, and civilian targets after being driven out of major cities in 2011–2012.

President Hassan Sheik Mohamoud, who was chosen in May 2022, vowed to wage “all-out war” on al-Shabaab.

For more than a year, government troops and clan militias have been undertaking a military effort in central Somalia to retake land, supported by African Union soldiers and US airstrikes.

Al-Shabaab has persisted in carrying out deadly assaults despite setbacks.