Tag: al-shabab

Al-Shabab Attack Leave Six Dead in Mogadishu Airport

Police in Somalia say at least six people are dead after two gunmen attacked Mogadishu’s heavily guarded international airport Wednesday.

The dead include a Somali anational and five foreigners. The two gunmen were killed by security forces, according to police spokesman Major Abdifatah Aden Hassan.

Hassan said one of the foreigners was a soldier with the African Union peacekeeping mission AMISOM. He said four others were trainers helping the Somali government with explosives training.

The al-Shabab militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hassan told VOA that two men attacked the Marine gate of the airport Wednesday afternoon and were “confronted” by security forces.

The airport hosts the headquarters of the AMISOM and most of the foreign diplomats in Mogadishu.

Witnesses and security officials said the shooting took place on the eastern side of the airport, where many shops are located.

A security official who requested not be identified because he is not allowed to speak with media told VOA the militants used small arms and hand grenades. He said at least three police personnel were injured in the attack.

Al-Shabab said its fighters shot several people and set buildings on fire. A VOA reporter in Mogadishu saw smoke rising from the area of the confrontation in the airport.

Al-Shabab has attacked the airport several times since 2009, killing dozens.

Al-Shabab Claims Responsibility in Moghadishu Bombing

On Friday, an attack on a military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killed at least eight people and injured 14 others, officials say.

A suicide bomber driving a car targeted the gates of the base near Mogadishu Stadium, military officials said. The extremely loud explosion was heard across the city.

This is as the Somali Civil seems to be giving no respite nearly 40 years when it started. The War grew out of resistance to the military junta led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. By 1988–1990, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991

Islamist militant group Al-Shabab said it was behind the attack. It often carries out bombings targeting security forces and officials.

Col Ahmed Muse told Associated Press that the explosion took place at the gates of the 12th April Army Brigade base close to the recently reopened sports stadium in the Warta-Nabadda district.

The stadium opened in June and was seen as a symbol of the country rebuilding after years of conflict.

Halima Abdisalan, a mother of three who lives near the area told Reuters news agency that soldiers opened fire after the explosion. “We ran indoors in fear,” she said.

Al-Shabab – a group of Islamist militants, allied to Al-Qaeda – has waged an insurgency for more than 10 years. It was forced out of the capital in 2011 but still controls areas of the country.

Hitting a military base is an audacious act which is likely to worry the government, BBC World Service Africa editor Will Ross reports.

International peacekeepers from an African Union force have also been targeted in the past

Al-Shabab group bombs military base in Southern Somalia

A government military base in the Lower Shabelle region of Somalia was struck by car bombs and gunfire on Wednesday, residents said, and the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The incident occurred in Awdhigle, an agricultural district along the Shabelle River, 70 km southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

“We heard two huge blasts and gunfire from the direction of the Somali military base. I saw several soldiers running away from the base to escape but we cannot know how many were killed,” Awdhigle elder Aden Abdullahi told Reuters.

Al-shabab claims responsibility for Kenya hotel attack

The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab has said that it is responsible for the attack on Tuesday on the Wetlands, Nairobi Dusit hotel. Three hours after the attack began, reports say there was gunfire at the vicinity.

Al-shabab, on one of its media outlets gave details about how the attack was carried out: “started with a big explosion and was quickly followed by the forced entry of armed men into the “targeted” hotel.

Today’s attack comes three years to the day after al-Shabab militants attacked a Kenyan military base in Somalia where nearly 200 soldiers were killed.

 Eyewitnesses said the attackers were six in number. “Police have cordoned off the area around the attack and there are many people running away from the area. I can see ambulances and four cars have been destroyed.”, an eye witness told the BBC

Daniel Kulecho emailed the BBC to say he left work early to collect his daughter from school and that traffic in Nairobi was unbelievable.

“I left work quickly to pick my daughter to safety from school, about 1km away from Dusit. Traffic is unbelievable! Our office safety team has organised a WhatsApp roll call for people to respond with SAFE.”

He told the BBC he was OK; “we are so scared though,” he added.

People have been fleeing the scene of the attack in Westlands escorted by heavily armed soldiers; one man has been led out with a gunshot wound in the back.

One office worker explained what had happened to her:

“I was inside the office, I was locked there. But when they blew the first, the explosive, I heard it and it shook my office.

I was inside the office, I was locked there. But when they blew the first, the explosive, I heard it and it shook my office.

“I don’t know where they were, but I heard a big blast, and then a lot of shoot-outs, then I wrote messages to people and told them, there is a very heavy shoot-out.

“Before I could think, they were hitting doors just around me, around the place, and I kept on praying, and God has saved me. But I’m so terrified”, he told BBC.