Al Shabaab Islamist militants
attacked a government building housing two ministries in the Somali
capital on Tuesday, setting off two big blasts before gunmen stormed
inside, killing at least 10 people, police and the rebels said.
Somali security services survey the scene of a car bomb outside the Education Ministry in Mogadishu on April 14, 2015. Photo: AFP
Fighting was still raging around the building, which houses the ministries for higher education and petroleum and minerals.
It is the latest in a series of raids in
Mogadishu by al Shabaab, which wants to topple Somalia's Western-backed
government and impose its own strict version of Islamic law.
The group also attacked a university campus in neighboring Kenya this month, killing 148 people.
"First two blasts occurred, a bike blast
and a car blast, outside the building, then armed fighters stormed in,"
Major Ali Nur, a police officer, told Reuters.
About an hour and a half after the explosions, police said they had secured the building.
Al Shabaab's military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu confirmed that the group was behind the attack.
Government spokesman Ridwaan Haji said
on his official Twitter account that 10 people had been killed in the
attack, including two soldiers and eight civilians. He said seven
militants had also been killed.
Police Colonel Hussein Ibrahim said one
of the soldiers was with the African Union peacekeeping force, which has
led a military campaign against al Shabaab with Somali troops and also
guards major government buildings and installations.
"Now the fighting is over and the building is secured," Ibrahim said.
The government spokesman could not immediately confirm the death of the AU soldier.
Trader Omar Mohamed, who works near the
scene, said he was thrown off his chair by the blasts. He said attackers
sprayed gunfire at security forces during their battle to retake the
building.
Al Shabaab, which once ruled much of
Somalia, lost control of Mogadishu in 2011 and has been driven out of
remaining major strongholds in a joint AU-Somalia military offensive
launched last year.
Despite losing swathes of territory, the
group has repeatedly shown it can strike Somali targets and also across
the border into Kenya.
Earlier this month, al Shabaab fighters
attacked a university campus in the Kenyan town of Garissa, which lies
about 200 km (120 miles) from the border, killing 148 people. The group
has said it wants to punish Kenya for sending troops to Somalia as part
of the AU force.
At the end of March, al Shabaab militants attacked a hotel in the Somali capital, killing 14.
Source: Reuters
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