Somali presidential compound attacked, president safe
Tue Jul 8, 2014 7:09pm GMT
* President absent from compound when hit by al Shabaab
* Al Shabaab militants claim assault in Mogadishu
* Conflicting reports on whether fighting is over (Adds details of earlier
fighting)
By Feisal Omar and Abdirahman Hussein
MOGADISHU, July 8 (Reuters) - Islamist militants attacked Somalia's
presidential compound on Tuesday with a car bomb and gunmen broke through a
perimeter wall but were repulsed by security forces, and the president was
not there at the time, the interior ministry said.
Up to five members of the al Shabaab Islamist group, which claimed
responsibility, were killed, Interior Minister Abdullahi Godah Barre told
Reuters. Three militants were confirmed dead, and one or two more were
believed to have died in the car blast.
The assault was the most dramatic in a string of attacks in the capital
Mogadishu by al Shabaab since it launched a campaign during the current
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
But President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was not there at the time as he was at
another location attending an iftar, the meal to break the Ramadan fast
after sunset.
"I can assure you the president is not hurt and as a matter of fact he was
not in the palace," the minister said, adding the gunmen were repulsed in
the car park near the prime minister's offices and had not made it to the
presidential quarters.
It was the second time since February that al Shabaab had attacked the
sprawling compound, which includes the presidential buildings and other
government offices. Officials said security had been tightened since then,
including adding stronger gates.
Officials said the attackers were quickly defeated by Somali security forces
and members of the African Union peacekeeping force, which remains the
backbone for Somali state security.
However, al Shabaab said fighting still raged after officials said it was
finished. "Let them enter the palace and meet us if the fighting is over,"
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations,
told Reuters.
He said their fighters had killed 14 soldiers in the raid, while the
minister said there had been no such casualties. The minister also said
details of the attack were still not clear and greater clarity would come in
the morning.
Police said earlier there was also fighting near a cell holding al Shabaab
militants. "I understand there is fighting going on around the underground
cell where militants are jailed - just outside the palace," Colonel
Abdullahi Aden, a senior police officer, told Reuters.
Residents said they could still hear sporadic gunfire into the night.
African Union forces along with the Somali army launched a new offensive
this year against al Shabaab, which is fighting to impose its strict
interpretation of Islam on Somalia.
Several towns have been wrested back from the group but officials say the
Islamists still control tracts of countryside and some settlements, from
where they have been able to continue their guerrilla-style campaign.
The militants, who seek to impose their own harsh version of Islamic law,
have also staged attacks outside the Horn of Africa state, including a raid
on a Kenyan shopping mall in September that killed at least 67 people.
(Addtional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu and Edmund Blair in
Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair and George Obulutsa; Editing by Mark
Heinrich)