No fewer than seven people have died and more than 11 others wounded after a vehicle exploded outside a police headquarters in Somalia’s capital, police and health officials said Wednesday.
The al-Shabab extremist group have claimed responsibility for the incident which is perceived to be a suicide attack.
A police spokesman, Col. Abdiqani Mohamed Qalaf, said the suicide bomber tried to drive into the headquarters near the ex-control Afgoye road but was intercepted.
Two soldiers and three passers-by were among the dead. “He could have killed more people if not stopped,” Qalaf said. He reported that Dr. Hashim Suldan at Medina hospital told The Associated Press they had received 13 wounded people and two of them died on arrival. Others had serious wounds from shrapnel.
There have been rumoured concerns that the group might take advantage of Somalia’s current political tensions to strike again. Al-Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu.
Earlier today, the president bowed to growing pressure overnight and announced in a national address that he would prepare the country for elections that have been delayed since early February. He also said he would speak on Saturday to parliament, whose lower house this month approved a two-year extension of his mandate that he signed into law to the anger of Senate leaders, the opposition and some in the international community.
The president in his address vowed that this week’s scenes of clashes between rival soldiers would not be repeated, while many Mogadishu residents who had feared a return to open warfare in Somalia sighed with relief.
The United Nations says tens of thousands of Mogadishu residents fled their homes this week after rival groups of soldiers clashed in the streets on Sunday amid a standoff over President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s extended stay in power.
