extremism
Several dead in terrorist attack in Mogadishu
There are repeated attacks in Mogadishu. On January 12, a car bomb exploded, killing more than a dozen people. Photo: Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP/dpa/Archive
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The capital of the East African crisis state Somalia is again hit by a terrorist attack. Al-Shabaab claims at least nine people were killed in the attack.
At least nine people were killed in a coordinated terrorist attack on the capital of the East African crisis-ridden state of Somalia, according to police reports.
Local residents heard a wave of heavy explosions just after midnight in southeastern Mogadishu, followed by hours of automatic weapon fire and mortar shell fire.
“What we saw last night in Mogadishu shows that the Al-Shabaab terrorist group still poses a potential threat to peace there after it was ousted from the capital by military force in 2011,” said former Somali intelligence chief Ahmed Fiki the dpa.
According to a police spokesman, the attackers temporarily took control of a police station. Numerous buildings were destroyed. “Our house collapsed completely in the explosion and we lost an older brother,” local resident Mohamud Ibrahim told dpa. Two children are among the dead.
Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab
According to the police, numerous Islamists had overrun various checkpoints during the attack in order to get to the capital. They also used car bombs. “The security authorities are still looking for attackers,” said a police spokesman in the morning. The Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which is considered one of the most serious in recent years, via its mouthpiece Radio Andalus. Al-Shabaab claimed not only to have killed numerous soldiers and police officers, but also to have looted military equipment.
For years, the country on the Horn of Africa has been shaped by the terror of Al-Shabaab, which controls large parts of the south and center and repeatedly carries out attacks on security forces and civilians. In contrast to the most recent attack, however, it is mostly lone perpetrators who carry out suicide attacks in the capital Mogadishu.