Somalia minister Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla among 11 dead in attack by al-Shabab militants
- Police said the assault began when two explosions were set off near the ministries of public works and labour
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An attack involving gunmen and bomb blasts on a complex housing government ministries in Somalia’s capital killed at least 11 people on Saturday, including the deputy labour minister, officials said.
Claimed by the al-Shabab Islamist group, the assault was a sign of the insurgency’s continued ability to strike at the heart of Somalia’s government, despite years of foreign military support for Mogadishu.
The fighting began with two blasts at the gates of the complex housing the labour and works ministries.
Police said at least four gunmen then stormed the buildings, leading to a shoot-out as officers rushed to confront the attackers.
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“The death toll reached eleven, three of them women, and the number of wounded is 15,” said Abdukadir Abdirahman Adan, director of Mogadishu’s Aamin ambulance service.
Senator Ilyas Ali Hassan confirmed that Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, the deputy minister for labour and social affairs, was also killed.
“I cannot elaborate on how he died but I can confirm that he was killed inside the ministry building,” Hassan said.
Police official Ibrahim Mohamed said all the gunmen were killed.
“There were some other casualties including members of the police,” he said, without elaborating.
In 2010, the al-Shabab declared their allegiance to al-Qaeda. The following year, the group were chased out of Mogadishu by the 22,000-strong African Union peace-enforcement mission, AMISOM.
They have since lost many of their strongholds but retain control of large rural swathes of the country and continue to wage a guerilla war, frequently hitting Mogadishu.
In October 2017, a truck bombing in a busy neighbourhood of the capital killed over 500 people, the deadliest attack in Somalia to date.
The Shabaab have also carried out a string of attacks in Kenya since 2011.
The deadliest of these took place on April 2, 2015, when 148 people were killed at Garissa University in northeastern Kenya.
