date_range
Friday 22 Nov 2024
LOCAL EDITION
close
LOCAL EDITION
A bombing outside a cafe Sunday in the Somali capital of Mogadishu killed at least five people, police said. (Photo/TRT World)
A bombing outside a cafe Sunday in the Somali capital of Mogadishu killed at least five people, police said.
Some people were watching the European soccer final between Spain and England on a screen inside the cafe when a car loaded with explosives blew up outside, said Maj. Abdifitah Aden Hassa, spokesman for Somali police. He told reporters that at least 20 other people were injured in the attack.
Pictures posted online and purporting to be from the scene showed a fire burning outside the cafe in the aftermath of the explosion.
"Some of the spectators got injured while trying to jump the perimeter wall of the café, and others got wounded in a stampede,” witness Ismail Adan said by phone.
Most of the victims were in the street at the time of the explosion, he said.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
Attacks by the terrorist group al-Shabab are frequently reported in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia.
Jailbreak
The calm was broken on Saturday with an attempted jailbreak by inmates inside a Mogadishu prison. In that attack, in which at least eight people were killed, prisoners convicted for their roles in al-Shabab attacks exchanged fire with prison guards before they were killed.
Somalia’s government is conducting a high-profile offensive against the terrorist group, which the US has described as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared “total war” against the terror group, which controls some parts of central and southern Somalia and has been the target of scores of US air strikes in recent years.
___
Source: TRT
