You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Africa Horn
Suicide bomber kills three in Mogadishu restaurant attack
2016-01-03
[STUFF.CO.NZ] A jacket wallah attacked a popular restaurant in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, on Saturday (Sunday NZ Time), killing himself and at least three others, Somali police said.

The attacker, dressed in a business suit over a boom jacket, detonated the bomb after entering the Village Restaurant, which is opposite Somalia's National Theatre, police said.

"So far, three civilians are dead," Major Nur Ali, a police brass hat, told Rooters.

In comments on state radio, Somalia's information minister, Mohammed Abdi Hayir, blamed the attack on al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
, the al Qaeda-aligned Islamist holy warriors who wage frequent attacks in the capital as part of a campaign to bring down the Western-backed Somali government.

"The al-Shabaab suicide bomber did not cause many casualties," he said, adding that most of the people in the restaurant were able to escape before the bomb exploded.

A front man for the group could not be reached for comment.

Saturday's (Sunday NZT) attack marked the third time suicide bombers have attacked the restaurant,

On Friday (Saturday NZT), al-Shabaab holy warriors attacked a cop shoppe in the capital, and police said that three of them were killed. Police showed journalists pictures of the dead, but al-Shabaab denied they had lost anyone in the attack.
An Nahar adds:
The attack targeted the Village Restaurant, an eatery in the south of the city popular with journalists and government officials.
Posted by:Fred

00:00