Suicide bomber kills 15 Somalis in Mogadishu

A Shabaab suicide bomber killed 15 Somalis in an attack in Mogadishu today as Kenyan forces advance against the terror group in the south.

The suicide attack occurred near the old foreign ministry building in the Somali capital. A suicide bomber detonated his car packed with explosives outside the building, killing 15 Somalis and wounding 20 more, according to Mareeg Online. Most of those killed and wounded were civilians, Mareeg reported.

The suicide attack is the second in the capital this month. On Oct. 4, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside a building where scholarships were being awarded by the Turkish government to Somali students. More than 100 Somalis, mostly students and their families, were killed in the massive blast.

Since mid-2006, Shabaab and its predecessor, the Islamic Courts, have carried out more than 30 major suicide attacks in Somalia.

Today’s bombing took place as Kenyan forces have moved into southern Somalia to attack Shabaab bases there. Kenyan troops invaded southern Somalia two days ago, just one day following the announcement by Kenyan officials that they would tackle the terror group after several high-profile kidnappings of foreign aid workers inside Kenyan camps.

Kenyan troops, backed by Somali forces, are advancing on the city of Afmadow, about 50 miles inside Somali territory. Some reports indicate that Shabaab fighters have abandoned the city but are said to be gathering reinforcements from other areas to fight the Kenyans. Other reports claim, however, that Shabaab forces are digging into Afmadow to fight the Kenyan advance.

In response to Kenya’s deployment of forces in Somalia, Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage warned that Shabaab would retaliate with suicide bombings in Kenya, saying “[R]emember what happened in Uganda’s capital,” a reference to the 2010 Shabaab suicide attacks in Kampala that killed 76 people, according to The Associated Press. The Kampala attack cell was named after a senior al Qaeda leader who also served as a senior Shabaab commander.

“Your skyscrapers will be destroyed, your tourism will disappear. We shall inflict on you the same damage you inflicted on us,” Rage continued at his press conference, which was held in Mogadishu.

Despite official statements by Kenyan officials announcing the operation, the Somali government has denied reports that Kenyan troops have entered the south. The weak Transitional Federal Government has been dependent on Ugandan and Burundian troops from the African Union to help secure the capital of Mogadishu. Shabaab withdrew most of its forces from the capital late last summer, and vowed to wage low-level attacks.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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5 Comments

  • gary siebel says:

    Interesting. If Ethiopia came in forcefully from the other end, Shabaab would be squeezed.
    But the foreign aid workers bit just sounds good for the international community; it was the kidnapped tourist, the other shot dead, that was the last straw.
    Shabaab just went too far, hurting the tourist industry, which is a large part of the kenyan economy. Another big part of the economy, exports, are getting killed by the shipping rates, a direct result of the piracy, so the Kenyans may be getting serious. Their entry points into Somalia suggest an attempt to pin the Shabaab to the coast, where they would be in easy drone range.
    Kidnappings of aid workers may be result of increased navy patrols having causing significant reduction in successful pirate raids this year compared to last. But their money is still good, apparently. A Kenyan judge just declared Kenya had no authority to prosecute pirates whose crimes occurred in international waters, and even ordered their immediate release, which may have further exasperated the Kenyan government into action.
    If the US wished to assist Kenya on the internationally legal basis of wiping out the pirates, now would be the time (e.g., real time aerial recon for the Kenyans). After all Obama’s old man was Kenyan, so he would just be helping out some of his relatives while doing the world a favor.

  • Honza Prchal says:

    First Syria refuses to accept his mediation, now Islamists in Mogadishu killed a bunch of Somalis the Turks were giving scholarships to. I wonder if a lightbulb is going off in Ergodan’s head?

  • Haakon S says:

    If you check out Kenyan media, there were some Kenyan officials visiting Mogadishu, among them was the Kenyan ministers of Defence, Yusuf Haji and Foreign Affairs, Moses Wetang’ula. In Kenyan media, it seems they were the target. They had however, changed their route in Mogadishu, and escaped the attack. Check it out

  • haakon S says:

    Kenyan ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence were the targets of the attack. They were visiting Mogadishu, but they changed the route through the Somali city. Check it out.

  • haakon S says:

    Correction, they might have been.

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