By JOSH KRON
Published: October 19, 2013
NAIROBI, Kenya — More than a dozen people were killed Saturday in a suicide attack on a cafe in western Somalia, near the border with Ethiopia. The Shabab, the militant Somali Islamist group, claimed responsibility.
The attacker, strapped with explosives, blew himself up around 11 a.m. in Beledweyne, a city about 200 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, officials said. Col. Isack Ali Abdulle, a police commander in Beledweyne, told local reporters that 15 people were killed in the attack.
Through a spokesman, Abdiaziz Abu Musab, the Shabab claimed responsibility and said the suicide bomber had been targeting soldiers from Ethiopia and Djibouti who frequented the cafe. He gave a higher death toll, saying 25 people had been killed.
A peacekeeping force from the African Union is in Somalia to help local forces fight the Shabab, and a spokesman for the African Union said it was trying to determine whether any of its soldiers were killed or injured in the attack, which took place near a peacekeeping base. Soldiers from Djibouti and Ethiopia patrol the area of Beledweyne, the spokesman said, though Ethiopian troops are not part of the peacekeeping mission.
The attack on Saturday came four weeks after the Shabab laid siege to the Westgate mall in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya, which brought worldwide attention to the ferocious militant group. Inside Somalia, the Shabab has long posed a significant threat, carrying out large-scale attacks in Mogadishu at a United Nations compound, the court complex and a popular restaurant.
In a statement, Somalia’s prime minister, Abdi Farah Shirdon, confirmed the attack, saying the bombing killed “a number” of Somalis and calling Shabab fighters “brainwashed.” He did not give an exact death toll.
The Shabab rose to power as a nationalist movement resisting the United States-backedEthiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006. The group grew to control large swaths of the country, including Mogadishu, but it has been beaten back in recent years by Somali troops and African Union forces.
The African Union contingent was able to dislodge the Shabab from key cities in Somalia, but the group has responded by focusing increasingly on asymmetric attacks.
“We call it a martyrdom operation,” said Mr. Musab, the Shabab spokesman. “Those are the enemies. This is Somalia. They are here for occupation; they came to occupy our lands.”
No comments:
Post a Comment