A bomb tore through a senior policeman's car in Somalia's capital on Monday, a day after suspected Islamist militants shelled an area where the president was due to speak and attacked a city center cafe, witnesses and officials said.
No one claimed responsibility for the assaults which officials said wounded two mechanics working on the car on Monday and killed 13 people at Mogadishu's Oromo Cafe on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear if the shells caused any casualties on Sunday in the Huriwa district where President Hassan Sheik Mohamud was due to attend celebrations marking the anniversary of the violence-wracked country getting its flag.
Al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab has launched a string of bomb and gun attacks in Mogadishu and other centers -- and promised to step up action after African and Somali troops pushed it out of a coastal stronghold a week ago.
The bomb was planted in the car of the police chief of the city's Blacksea area, near the bustling Bakara market on Monday, police major Ahmed Kassim told Reuters.
“The car exploded as two mechanics started the engine to test the car,” he added, blaming al-Shabab.
The evening before, attackers detonated a car bomb in front of the popular city center Oromo Cafe, leaving its entrance charred and spattered with blood.
Shortly before that, five shells were fired into the city's Huriwa district, witnesses said, though the government did not comment on those accounts.
President Mohamud, who was not injured, addressed the anniversary event in Huriwa later in the evening and told the crowd the death toll from the Oromo cafe bombing had risen to 13. Early reports had said seven people died.
“They have killed innocent people who were just resting. It shows the hopelessness of al-Shabab,” he said.
Al-Shabab Timeline
Al-Shabab Timeline2006 - Launches insurgency to take control of Somalia and impose strict Islamic law
2008 - U.S. declares al-Shabab a foreign terrorist organization
2009 - Seizes control of parts of Mogadishu and the port city Kismayo
2010 - Expands control across central and southern Somalia, carries out deadly bombing in Kampala, Uganda
2011 - Blocks drought/famine aid from areas under its control
2011 - East African leaders declare al-Shabab a regional threat; Ethiopian, Kenyan troops enter Somalia to pursue the group, which is driven out of Mogadishu
2012 - Declares itself an al-Qaida ally, loses ground in Somalia, abandons strategic coastal stronghold Kismayo
2013 - Attacks Mogadishu court complex, killing more than 30 and attacks mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 69 people
2014 - Attack in Mogadishu kills more than 10 on New Year's Day
Al-Shabab wants to topple the government, which it says is a puppet of Western powers, and aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, who still provide the backbone of security as the Somali army is slowly rebuilt after years of civil war.
Al-Shabab has been steadily driven out of towns in its heartland of south and central Somalia by an African and Somali military offensive. On October 5, the group lost control of Barawe port, which had offered a conduit for arms imports.
Officials and diplomats say the loss of Barawe and the U.S. military strike that killed al-Shabab's leader last month have dealt a hefty blow, but it was far too soon to declare victory over a group skilled at guerrilla warfare.
Al-Shabab said last week it would prove it was still a potent force.
