While one blast struck the airport’s perimeter wall, another one was detonated by a suicide attacker near a checkpoint.
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MOGADISHU Somalia (Xinhua) – The UN and African Union envoys in Somalia on Tuesday condemned twin suicide vehicle bomb attacks in the vicinity of Mogadishu International Airport that killed at least 13 people and injured five others. “There were many Somalis outside the gate and there were AU forces at the gate”, police officer Major Nur Osman told Reuters.
MOGADISHU, Somalia-Twin suicide bombings at a seaside airport in volatile Mogadishu have left at least 13 people dead according to officials on Tuesday, Garowe Online reports.
AU troops have been engaged in a long, bloody war against Somalia’s local al-Qaida affiliate, Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the blasts.
Al Shabab said its bombers “targeted two different locations where the so-called Amisom peacekeepers are stationed”, referring to the 22,000-strong African Union force. “We have killed dozens of them”, Abdulaziz Abu Muscab, a spokesman for the group, said.
Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, is waging an insurgency against Somalia’s weak United Nations -backed government with the goal of establishing an Islamist emirate, ruled by a strict form of Islam.
Its fighters were forced out of the capital five years ago but continue to carry out regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets.
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The African Union’s AMISOM force said on Twitter it condemned the “senseless attacks that aim to disrupt and cripple the lives of ordinary Somalis”.
