Somali TV announced that the director of Radio Mogadishu, Mahmoud Guled, known for his criticism of the Mujahideen Youth Movement, was killed in a suicide bombing yesterday evening, Saturday, while he was leaving a restaurant in the capital, Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab claimed in a statement the bombing, which killed Guled and wounded two others, the director of Somali National Television, Sharmarke Warsame, and a driver.
The movement said it "carried out a revenge attack targeting the director of Radio Mogadishu owned by the Somali government, Abdul Aziz Guled."
"We are shocked by the killing of the director of Radio Mogadishu, Abdul Aziz Guled, and the injury of our director in state television and my painter in a cowardly terrorist explosion," the national television statement said.
For his part, Abdul Rahman Yusuf, Deputy Minister of Information of Somalia, said in a statement, "May God have mercy on my brother Abdul Aziz Mahmoud Guled, a brave man lost by the nation."
Somali government official Ismael Mukhtar Omar, also a colleague of the late journalist, confirmed that police had concluded that the blast was caused by a suicide attack.
Although it was expelled from Mogadishu in 2011, al-Shabab continues to launch attacks in the capital as part of its rebellion that began in 2007 to overthrow the fragile federal government backed by the international community.
Abdul Aziz Guled was known for his interviews with Al-Shabab members who are being held by the Somali security forces, and his programs attracted the interest of a large audience inside and outside Somalia.