Al-Shabab says ‘White Officials’ were target of car bomb that killed eight people at Somalia airport

The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility for a car bomb on Wednesday that killed eight people and wounded another nine outside the international airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, a facility which hosts the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic offices.

The explosion killed five soldiers and left five civilians injured, Ali Abdi Wardhere, Mogadishu’s deputy mayor, told reporters. He also said that his own convoy had been driving nearby but was unharmed and that investigation into the incident is underway.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance service, told Reuters, “A car bomb targeted a convoy, including bullet proof cars, using Avisione Street. We do not (know) who owns the convoy. We carried eight dead people from the scene.”

Al-Shabab carries out bombings at high-profile locations in the capital. The group said via a radio address that a convoy of “white officials” had been the target of the bombing.

Witnesses said a United Nations convoy near a checkpoint leading to the airport appeared to be the target of the blast, according to the Associated Press. However, the U.N. mission said there were no U.N. personnel or contractors in the convoy.

“When I came out of the mosque, I saw several old houses collapsed, body parts on the street, hands, legs,” Mogadishu resident Mohamed Osman told Reuters.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Al-Shabab is “capable of carrying out massive attacks in Somalia and surrounding countries despite a long-running African Union offensive against the Islamist terrorist group.” The group formed in the early 2000s and seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. Estimates of its membership range up to 10,000 members.

Somalia is the Horn of Africa nation where tensions have been rising over an election delayed for almost a year.

The African Union peacekeeping mission has been asked to contribute security outside Somalia’s presidential palace, where opposing armed factions supporting President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble have been present. The two leaders disagree over, among other issues, who should be in charge of security in the country.

Source: News Week