Salah Nuh Ismail, 53, was among those who killed 13 people in the suicide attacks near the city’s main airport, the al-Shabab group said.
Advertisement
They had tried to breach the security compound wall housing United Nations and African Union peacekeepers near the airport, but were stopped at a checkpoint on the road leading to the base.
“We can not assure the refugees that they will be safe, but we take precautions”, she said.
The nationalities of those killed have not been confirmed.
The force of the explosions shattered windows at Mogadishu’s nearby airport, showering arriving passengers with glass, said witnesses.
“AU forces sealed the area”.
Somali militant group al-Shabaab has said that former Member of Parliament, 57-year-old Salah Nuh Ismail, also known as Salah Badbado, was part of the attackers who exploded two vehicle bombs at the entrance of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base in the capital Mogadishu killing at least 13 people.
Somalia’s jihadi rebels, al-Shabaab, have claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to the group’s Andalus radio station.
“This horrific incident is a fresh example of the extremists’ desperate attempts to disrupt political progress”, said Michael Keating, the UN’s special representative for Somalia. “I spoke with a friend who works at the airport”.
This attack follows two other deadly attacks by al-Shabab in Somalia this summer alone.
“These attacks must be stopped”.
Somalia soldiers secure a damaged wall outside the U.N.’s office in Mogadishu on July 26.
Advertisement
On Tuesday, the main peacekeeping base in the Somalian capital Mogadishu, Halane, came under a suicide attack leaving ten people dead, including two security guards.
