Somalia attack update: Death toll rises to 15
CGTN
["africa"]
Somalia's al Shabaab stormed a government building on Saturday, detonating a suicide car bomb in the heart of the capital Mogadishu with at least 15 people, including an assistant minister, killed during the ensuing gun battle.
In the latest bombing claimed by al Shabaab, an Islamist group which is fighting to establish its own rule in Somalia, based on a strict interpretation of sharia law, a huge explosion shook central Mogadishu and a large plume of smoke rose above a building housing Somalia's ministries of labour and works.
Police later said the fighting at the building had ended and that the premises had been completely secured.
“The building was secured by security forces. The four militants who attacked the building were shot dead. Another militant was a suicide car bomber and so he also died,” Major Ali Abdullahi, a police officer told Reuters.
Among those killed include the Somali Deputy Minister for Labour & Social Affairs Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla.
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire has condemned the attacks vowing to wipe out Al-Shabaab from the country.
“I hereby inform the Somali public that the Somali government is committed in intensifying its fight against terrorists. We will continue to pursue terrorist elements until we clear them from the country,” he said following the attack.
The attack on the government building comes less than a month after the group laid a deadly siege on a popular hotel in downtown Mogadishu that claimed more than a dozen lives.
Insecurity continues to be a major challenge in Somalia with deadly bombings and assassinations continuing to claim lives in a city often a target for the Al Qaeda linked terrorist group
Authorities have also been criticized for not launching major offensives to seize new territories.
Earlier this week, government troops abandoned several defensive outposts on the outskirts of Mogadishu over lack of payment, allowing al Shabaab to retake control of strategic villages linking Mogadishu to the agricultural rich regions of Lower and Midlle Shabelle.