Wednesday, June 19, 2013
At least 14 people died and 15 others were wounded in an attack on
the U.N. headquarters in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday.
Seven militants, four
U.N. employees and three female civilians were killed, said Abdikarim
Hussein Guled, the country's interior and national security minister.
The other victims were rushed to a hospital.
Al-Shabaab, the militant
group linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility, the group said on
Twitter. It was the second major attack in the city in less than a month
in an unstable nation beset with civil strife for many years.
Police Officer Hussein
Ahmed said one attacker blew himself up at the entrance of the U.N.
compound, which is near the city's airport.
Others wearing suicide
vests entered the U.N. compound. He said Somali and African Union forces
surrounded the building and fought with the armed assailants.
The strike devastated the
area. Mangled buses and cars sat in disfigured heaps, the windows of
nearby apartments shattered, the ground littered with blood and body
parts.
A large brown plume of smoke was visible in the air as ambulances rushed to the scene and carried away the wounded.
The compound has now been
secured and is in the hands of AU troops, the official Twitter account
of the African Union Mission to Somalia said.