Friday, December 27, 2013
At least eight
people were killed in Mogadishu on Friday when a remotely controlled
bomb exploded in a busy restaurant in the Somali capital, police
official and witnesses said.
Police suspect al Qaeda-linked
Islamist group al Shabaab of planting the bomb, which went off in the
notoriously insecure Dayniile district where, police say, al Shabaab
militants often hide.
Al Shabaab did not immediately claim responsibility.
"The
remotely controlled bomb targeted government forces. Eight people died,
including three soldiers," Major Kadar Mohamed, a senior police officer
told Reuters.
The rebels were
pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 by African Union peacekeeping troops but
over the past year al Shabaab has carried out several large scale
attacks on high profile targets, denting gradual security improvements
in Mogadishu.
"I could see several
motionless people lying in the scene," Said Fatuma Hassan, a mother of
three who was near the bomb blast. "The whole place was ruined and
stained with blood."
(Reporting by Abdirahman Hussein and Abdi Sheikh Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Louise Ireland)