A car explosion killed at least four people in the restive Somali capital on Sunday as three others, including a policeman, were gunned down in violence which has surged since the toppling of an Islamist movement late last year.
Police said the four traveling in the car were all killed when their vehicle exploded in Mogadishu's Tawfiiq neighborhood.
Police official Garad Jama said investigators were probing the cause of the explosion, which also injured four bystanders.
"We are still not sure what caused this explosion," Jama said.
Mogadishu has seen a rise in violence since an Islamist movement, which seized Mogadishu from warlords who had lawlessly ruled the capital, was driven out last December by government forces backed by Ethiopian troops.
In a separate incident, masked attackers fired on a police patrol vehicle, killing an officer and wounding two others, in the northern Eymiska district, witnesses said.
"Policemen were driving when gunmen in another car opened fire on them ... one of the policemen was killed on the spot and two others wounded," local resident Ahmed Sheik Muhidin said.
Hours later, two people were killed and three wounded when government forces came under fire from unidentified gunmen.
"Heavy fire was exchanged and two people, one of them a woman, was killed," said a witness, Zakariye Mohamed.
On Saturday, at least one person was killed and 12 others injured when a mortar shell landed on a camp housing displaced people in the capital's port area.
Residents have rallied to protest the presence of the Ethiopian troops, some of whom began withdrawing last month.
The Islamists, who brought a semblance of order in Mogadishu and other areas they controlled in central and southern Somalia, have disbanded into clan militia. But some of them have vowed to fight the government and a planned African Union peacekeeping force.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was