The explosion of a car bomb near the National Assembly in Mogadishu on Wednesday January 8 left at least four people dead and more than ten injured, Somali police said. But the balance sheet could get heavier.
The attack was claimed by the Islamists Shebab, affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The terrorist group recently carried out several attacks, including Sunday against a US-Kenyan base in Kenya, neighboring Somalia, killing three Americans.
When it exploded, the car bomb was with other vehicles at a roadblock along the Maka Al-Mukarama road, near the Sayidka area, where the Somali Parliament is located. "The load was in a vehicle," a police officer said. "The security forces believe that because he couldn't get past the roadblock, the suicide bomber blew him up."
"There were other vehicles in the queue waiting for security at the roadblock when the explosion took place," the same source added. "Initial information we have indicates that four people were killed and more than ten others injured."
Shebab still controls large rural areas
Thick black smoke rose in the sky over Mogadishu after the explosion, which was heard several kilometers away. Several shots were also heard in the aftermath of the explosion, but authorities have confirmed no fighting between the security forces and Shebab. A witness who was in a grocery store not far from the place of the explosion, said he saw "the bodies of several people killed by shrapnel in their vehicle".
The Shebab regularly carry out car bomb attacks in Mogadishu. They swore the loss of the Somali government, supported by the international community and the 20,000 men of the African Union force in Somalia (Amisom).
Driven from Mogadishu in 2011, they lost most of their bastions but still control large rural areas, from where they conduct their operations. Despite costly international efforts to defeat them, these Islamist rebels carried out one of the deadliest operations of the decade in Somalia on December 28, 2019, with the explosion of a vehicle bomb in the capital that left 81 dead.
With AFP
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