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Six dead after attackers target Somalia’s presidential palace
[DAWN] Somali security forces rubbed out three ...  the personification of Somali state failure...attack on the presidential palace that began with a boom-mobile exploding, police said on Saturday. The confrontation came a week after an attack on the nearby interior ministry compound in Mogadishu killed at least nine people, again raising questions about the state of security in the most sensitive areas of Somalia’s capital. Six people were dead in all including a suicide boom-mobileer, Capt. Mohammed Hussein said, adding the situation had calmed and security in the area was being tightened. The midday attack began when a boom-mobile detonated near a checkpoint close to the presidential palace after security forces engaged with button men. A second boom-mobile went kaboom!in the same area shortly afterwards, Hussein said. "There were skirmishes between security forces and the attackers and then we had a big blast and a huge boom. The blast knocked me down," one witness, Osman Ali, said. The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab holy warrior group, an arm of Al Qaeda, often targets high-profile places in the capital. It grabbed credit for Saturday’s attack, saying its fighters were conducting a "major operation" around the palace and nearby SYL Hotel. Posted by: Fred 2018-07-16 |
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