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Militants kill cleric, 14 others in Somalia car bomb
[PRESSTV] al-Shabaab...  Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...button men and a boom-mobileer have struck a religious center in central Somalia, killing a holy man and at least 14 of his followers, a police officer says. The group was forced from Mogadishu in 2011 and most towns and cities but it retains a strong presence outside the capital and launches frequent bombings and other attacks in a campaign to topple the federal government. "The (security) operation is now over. al-Shabaab killed 15 people including the holy man, his wife, his followers and his guards," Captain Nur Mohammed, a police officer, told Rooters from Galkayo by phone. "Three bully boyz who stormed the center were also rubbed out." The group took responsibility for the attack and put the number of dead at 26. It said some soldiers who responded to the first attack also died as they tried to remove a second boom-mobile. "We killed 26 people, including the owner of the center, his followers, his bodyguards and soldiers," Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab’s military operation front man, said. Abdirashid Hashi, the governor of Mudug region, told Rooters that al-Shabaab had threatened Abdiweli on numerous occasions. An elder in Galkayo said Abdiweli had provided free boarding to former pirates, street boys and jobless men and they became his followers. "He used to tell teenagers: "If you were a pirate, or a bandit, stop it and come and eat food and sleep here. God will forgive your sins. Some other ignorant teenagers thought he was as saint ... and so joined him," local elder Ismail Abdirahman told Rooters. "We understood there was something wrong with him but we could not take him to court because the man was well-armed." In a separate attack in Mogadishu on Monday, at least three people died when a boom-mobile went kaboom!in front of shops in the Wadajir district of the capital, police and witnesses said. Posted by: Fred 2018-11-27 |
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