A woman injured during a suicide bomb attack at the base for the African Union’s peacekeepers in Mogadishu was carried by a relative on the way to a hospital yesterday. Leaders of the Islamist group Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
(Farah Abdi Warsameh/Associated Press)
Suicide bombings kill 9 in Somalia
Militants target African Union in truck blasts
A woman injured during a suicide bomb attack at the base for the African Union’s peacekeepers in Mogadishu was carried by a relative on the way to a hospital yesterday. Leaders of the Islamist group Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
(Farah Abdi Warsameh/Associated Press)
NAIROBI - In swift retaliation for the US killing this week of a suspected Al Qaeda fugitive in Somalia, insurgents attacked the main African Union peacekeeping base in Mogadishu with twin truck bombs yesterday, killing at least nine people, including four AU soldiers.
Suicide attackers attempted to infiltrate the heavily guarded seaside base by impersonating UN personnel, AU officials said.
Among the wounded were unidentified senior Somali government officials who were visiting the base and the newly arrived AU force commander, Major General Nathan Mugisha of Uganda, who suffered minor injuries, AU and government officials said.
Five of the dead appeared to be Somalis, but AU officials said they did not yet know whether they were civilians or suicide attackers. Nine soldiers were evacuated to Nairobi for treatment, said Major Barigye Ba-Huko, AU spokesman.
Leaders of Somalia’s hard-line Islamist group Shabab claimed responsibility, calling the attack a response to the US assault earlier this week.
On Monday, US helicopters carrying Special Forces commandos killed six Shabab operatives as they drove through a remote village in southern Somalia. Among those killed was Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan-born fugitive accused of helping to plan and execute strikes against a hotel and an Israeli charter airline in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002.
“These suicide attacks were revenge for the enemy of God’s [America’s] killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nahban and the massacre of Somali civilians by mercenary Ugandan forces,’’ said Sheik Ali Mohamoud Rage, Shabab spokesman.
He said that five “martyrs’’ targeted buildings where they believed high-level officials were meeting.
The nearly 5,000 AU troops in Somalia, mostly from Uganda and Burundi, are engaged in one of the most dangerous peacekeeping missions in the world. They are sorely understaffed and underfunded.
Before yesterday’s attack, 33 peacekeepers had been killed in Somalia since the mission’s start in early 2007. Another 20 have succumbed to diseases and accidents, including six who died this summer from a malnutrition-linked disease.
Since Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia at the beginning of the year, AU soldiers have borne the brunt of mortar and roadside bomb attacks by insurgents.
AU Special Representative for Somalia, Nicolas Bwakira, called yesterday’s attack “barbaric’’ but said in a statement that “the African Union remains resolute in its commitment to support the Somali people and the transitional federal government in their peace and reconciliation efforts.’’
AU officials said the suicide vehicles had “UN markings,’’ but could not confirm whether they were stolen UN vehicles or disguised sport utility vehicles. According to some witness accounts, one of the vehicles did enter the compound.
The base, which serves as the force headquarters, is one of the most heavily guarded places in Mogadishu.
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