Hiiraan Online
Monday April 20, 2015
(HOL)----A bomb tore apart a bus carrying UN employees in northern Somalia on Monday, killing at least ten people and wounded
seven others in rare attacks in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region, officials told HOL.
Al-Shabab claimed the responsibility for the blast in Garowe town which sent shockwaves across a region for stability during Somalia's decades of war.
The vehicle was carrying the employees with the United Nations Children's Fund to the office when a bomb planted under a seat was detonated by remote control, according to the police. In a statement issued after the blast, UNICEF confirmed four of its staff were killed in the explosion.
United Nations representative for Somalia Nicholas Kay condemned the 'appalling' attack, as the Somali president condoled families and relatives of the victims of the blast.
Puntland, a semiautonomous region in fighting a stubborn insurgency by the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab group which sent fighters to the region to topple the region's government.