[Pak Daily Times] At least eight people were killed Thursday when a suicide boom-mobileer rammed a convoy in Somalia's northern port of Bossasso, a region harbouring Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab forces of Evil where tensions are high ahead of elections in January."There was a car kaboom targeting a vehicle of the security forces, he rammed the convoy and then went
kaboom!," Abdullahi Said, a police officer in the port town, told AFP.
"Several people have been killed, so far we confirm that eight were killed, but the toll could be higher, many of those who were maimed were rushed to hospital."
Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
's government said in a statement it "strongly condemns" the attack, in which 37 were maimed, including six soldiers. The attack took place in a busy market area of Bossasso, the main port in Somalia's northeastern Puntland region, lying on its Gulf of Aden coast.
Shabaab fighters operate from the rugged Golis mountains southwest of Bossasso, a lawless region under longtime control of warlord, arms dealer and Shabaab ally Mohammed Said Atom, who has been hit with UN Security Council sanctions for "kidnapping, piracy and terrorism." Shabaab militia have attacked military bases near Bossasso in the past, and its suicide commandos regularly launch kabooms or guerrilla raids.