SOMALIA Three days of intense fighting in the capital city Mogadishu has left a number of people dead, as an extremist group aligned with al Qaeda attacks the government and African peacekeepers. A suicide car bomber attacked a police base on Monday, killing at least seven people, including two children, according to reports.
Over the weekend, African Union peacekeepers defending the weak transitional government claimed to have uncovered an extensive trench system used by Islamist insurgents to funnel “fighters and ammunition in and out of government-held districts.” But that report was followed by the suicide attack involving a truck loaded with fuel and explosives.
The Shabab insurgent group, which has sworn its allegiance to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group has mounted a number of suicide missions and claimed responsibility for the bombings in Uganda during the World Cup last year, part of what it called retribution for the presence of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.
The transitional federal government condemned Monday’s attack as “cowardly and barbaric.”
