A group linked to al-Qaeda tried to assassinate the Somali prime minister in a suicide bomb attack in front of his compound on Sunday that killed and injured an unknown number of people.
It is at least the third attempt on Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's life since he returned to Somalia in May 2005.
The attack followed a deadly weekend assault in northeastern Somalia by security forces and a US warship against Islamic extremists with suspected links to al-Qaeda.
"It was a suicide attack. They are terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. They planned to kill the prime minister. He escaped their assassination attempt. He is alive. And now he is in a safe place," Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said.
Paddy Ankunda, spokesman of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, said that a number of people were killed and others wounded.
Ankunda said that within minutes of the explosion, peacekeepers sealed off the area around Gedi's house and took charge of security. The peacekeepers are based at President Abdullahi Yusuf's residence, the main airport and Mogadishu port.
Qasaye Mohamed Ali, who lives in the neighborhood, said he was standing near the prime minister's house when he saw the car force its way through a roadblock. Guards outside the house opened fire and then the car rammed into a wall and exploded, he said.
Ali was waiting for a friend who was inside the house when the explosion happened. He said he hid behind a wall to protect himself.
The attack undermines the government assertion that it has defeated Islamic insurgents who have vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war unless Somalia becomes an Islamic state.
Ethiopian-Somali forces yesterday killed three civilians and wounded five others after a failed hand grenade attack on their convoy in Mogadishu, witnesses said.
It was the second failed grenade attack of the day on Ethiopian-Somali troops in the northern district of Huriwa.
"Immediately after the grenade was thrown at the Ethiopian-Somali convoy, they opened heavy fire in the direction it came from," witness Ahmed Ismail said.
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese