Islamist rebels shelled Somalia’s newly rebuilt parliament in Mogadishu on Sunday, sparking clashes with government forces and African Union peacekeepers that left 11 civilians dead, officials said.
The violence came as political turmoil erupted inside parliament itself, with many of the war-wracked nation’s lawmakers voting to sack the speaker after he called for the president to sack the prime minister.
Hardline Shebab militants, who are linked to al-Qaeda, opened fire with mortars in the direction of the recently renovated parliament building, which was preparing to host a session for the first time in 20 years.
Government troops and forces from the African Union retaliated with heavy artillery and mortars toward the city’s southern Bakara area, one of the main rebel strongholds, officials and medical sources said.
“Several artillery salvos and mortars hit Bakara market. Eleven civilians were killed and 52 wounded,” said Ali Muse, head of the Mogadishu ambulance service. “The terrorists tried to attack the parliament building, but the government forces defeated them and many of their fighters were killed in the clashes,” said Ali Hassan, a government security official.
The building did not appear to have been hit by the militant shelling.
Meanwhile, the Russian military did not intend to kill Somali pirates who are believed to be dead after being set afloat at sea in a small boat about 10 days ago, a senior commander was quoted as saying yesterday.
Navy captain Ildar Akhmerov confirmed earlier reports that the 10 captured pirates and their one dead comrade who had attempted to seize a Russian oil tanker were put to sea in a boat without any navigation equipment.
“We did not have the task of destroying the pirates during the operation to free the tanker. There was one main goal — to free the ship’s crew,” Akhmerov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“Our military medics gave the necessary medical help to all of the wounded bandits. We loaded the dead bandit’s body onto one of the pirates’ boats with the rest of the pirates and sent it to the nearest coast, toward Somalia,” he said.
“We loaded water, food and all their other things — except the confiscated weapons, boarding ladders and navigation tools — into the pirates’ boat,” he said. “The further fate of the released pirates is not known to us.”
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS