At least 13 people have been killed and 5 others wounded in two suicide attacks that targeted base used by African Union troops near Somalia’s Mogadishu airport. The radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab has taken responsibility for the attacks.
Photo: Twitter / Amichai Stein
Two suicide attacks in the area of Somalia’s Mogadishu airport have killed at least 13 people and wounded 5 others.
According to a local journalist, Harun Maruf, there were twin suicide car bombs tearing through checkpoints near Mogadishu International Airport.
The Al Jazeera information website reported that the first blast occurred near the entrance used by African Union forces, while the second explosion happened a checkpoint manned by Somali government forces. According to witness reports, a huge column of smoke has been seen rising from the site of the blasts, gunfire has been heard in the area of the airport. One of the witnesses reported that ambulances were rushing to the scene of the attacks.
@HarunMaruf Huge explosion near Medina Gate at Aden Adde International Airport!! pic.twitter.com/IkiQFU9Azo
— Kamal Gutale (@KamalGutale) 26 июля 2016 г.
“Our Mujahideen targeted Halane which is base to the foreign forces occupying our Muslim country. We have killed dozens of them,” a spokesman for the group, Abdulaziz Abu Muscab, said.
Abdifatah Omar Halane, a spokesman for Banadir administration, the local government, confirmed that 9 of the dead were security for the UN, adding that 3 others were civilians.
Somalia has been experiencing violence since the civil war started in the country in the early 1990s. The state’s collapse provided favorable terms for pirates, warlords and the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab. The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was deployed in the country in 2007.
