Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for car bombing in Mogadishu
Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the car
bombing that took place in the Somali capital on Monday, leaving 17 persons
killed, Voice of America reported quoting medical sources.
The director of Mogadishu’s largest hospital, Dr. Mohamed
Yusuf, said another 28 people were taken to the hospital with injuries.
The explosion occurred when a suspected suicide bomber
detonated a vehicle near a hotel close to the busy K-4 junction in Mogadishu.
Witnesses told VOA Somali that the vehicle was turned back
from a security checkpoint that leads to Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International
Airport.
The explosion comes just four days after the killing of a
senior al-Shabab intelligence officer.
Security sources told VOA Somali that Mohamed Nur Ikhlaas,
head of al-Shabab’s domestic intelligence, was killed in an apparent U.S.
airstrike near the town of Kunyo Barrow in the Lower Shabelle region on
Thursday night.
Ikhlaas was well known to the security branches, as he held
the post for a long time. He was al-Shabab's top political officer, according
to security sources.
