... the personification of Somali state failure...
bully boyz stormed Somalia's parliament building yesterday in a deadly and prolonged assault involving a jacket wallah, a boom-mobile and gunnies on foot and killing at least 10.
The attack by the Islamist group, which grabbed credit for the siege at a Kenyan shopping mall that killed 67 people last year, started with a boom-mobile at a gate to the heavily fortified parliament compound. It was followed by a suicide kaboom and then a shootout that continued for some hours.
After what was described by the UN as "an attack against the people", a police officer confirmed that four of his colleagues had been killed. Hours after the initial kaboom, gunfire and smaller blasts could still be heard around the building.
One soldier was killed when he tried to stopped a suicide bomber from entering the building, said police captain Mohammed Hussein. Six attackers were confirmed dead.
"We are behind the suicide kaboom, kabooms and the fighting inside the so-called Somali parliament, and still heavy fighting is going on inside," said al-Shabaab's front man, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab.
The attack on the parliament building, about 300 metres from the presidential palace, has shown that the al Qa'ida-linked group remains capable of hitting the centre of Mogadishu, despite being pushed out of the capital two years ago.