At least 6 people killed in blast in Somali capital - police
Sat May 3, 2014 11:32am GMT
By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on
Saturday, including a senior city council official, when a remotely
controlled bomb planted by al Shabaab insurgents exploded on a busy street
in the Somali capital, police said.
Somalia's fragile government is struggling to impose any sense of order more
than two decades after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre tipped the
country into chaos.
The city has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks in the past few
months, claimed by al Qaeda-linked militants al Shabaab, who have waged a
sustained guerrilla campaign even after they were pushed out of the city in
mid-2011.
Police said the bomb that killed the city official was hidden in a pile of
rubbish placed along the road. They said the other people killed were
thought to be his guards.
At least 25 people were wounded, medical officials said.
"The secretary general of the Banadir (Mogadishu) region, Abdikafi Hilowle,
was targeted and he died," Major Abdikadir Mohamed, a police officer told
Reuters. "A remotely controlled bomb hidden in paper bags of rubbish
destroyed his car."
The incident happened as the car passed through the 'Kilometer 4' junction.
The Kilometer 4 neighbourhood is Mogadishu's commercial and administrative
centre.
Gunfire from police also rung out through the district, as police fired in
the air.
A Reuters witness saw the wrecked government car and five wounded people
lying on the street. Al Shabaab militants - who want to impose a strict
version of the sharia law in Somalia - have also claimed responsibility for
similar attacks in the past.
The group claimed eight people were killed in the attack.
"We have killed a senior city official called Abdikafi Hilowle and 7 of his
bodyguards. We killed him to liberate the Somalis," sheikh Abdiasis Abu
Musab, the spokesman for al Shabaab's military operation told Reuters.
Western nations involved in Somalia worry it could sink back into chaos and
provide a launch pad for Islamist militancy.
* Bike riders lob grenade at bus terminal -official
* Kenya hit by series of attacks, blamed on al Shabaab
* Kenyan tourism "on its knees", president says (Adds official comment,
details)
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya, May 3 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed when
attackers threw an explosive device at passengers at a bus station in
Mombasa on Saturday, and a luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal city was
damaged in a separate blast, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kenya has blamed similar
attacks on the al Qaeda-linked Somali group al Shabaab, which killed at
least 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September.
There have been a string of attacks since then.
"What happened is a grenade was thrown at passengers," Mombasa county
commissioner Nelson Marwa told journalists.
"The attackers were riding on a motor bike, and lobbed the grenade at the
crowd of people at the bus terminus."
More than 20 people were wounded.
Guards at the seaside Reef Hotel told Reuters they had prevented attackers
from gaining entry, but the suspects threw a bag with an explosive device
into the compound. A roof of one building was ripped off by the blast and
part of its wall collapsed.
At the bus terminus, victims were sprawled in a pool of blood and the road
was littered with shattered glass from a bus.
"I didn't see who threw the object, but I heard a loud explosion before I
fell to the ground. I then felt my legs go numb," Halima Sidi, 26, who works
at a local supermarket, told Reuters at a hospital as nurses bandaged her
wounded legs.
The Kenyan coast's large Muslim minority, many of whom feel marginalized by
the government, has been a fertile recruitment ground for Islamist militant
networks.
Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 to try to drive out al Shabaab
which it sees as a threat to its own borders and security.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the tourism sector was "on its knees" due
to attacks by the militants who want Kenyan troops out of Somalia. Kenyatta
has rejected their demand.
Mombasa is a draw for tourists as well as a major port for the east African
region, situated on the Indian Ocean coastline. (Writing by James Macharia;
Editing by Robin Pomeroy)