Accessibility links

Breaking News

Al-Shabab Kills 3 Somali Soldiers in Latest Ramadan Attack


A handout photo taken and released on July 1, 2014 by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team shows members of the Somali Police Force standing guard during an Independence Day ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia.
A handout photo taken and released on July 1, 2014 by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team shows members of the Somali Police Force standing guard during an Independence Day ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Al-Shabab militants shot dead three Somali soldiers in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, their fourth attack since the start of the Ramadan fasting month that the Islamists have threatened to target.

Sheik Abdiasis abu Musab, al-Shabab's spokesman for military affairs, said they carried out the attack in the southern Mogadishu district of Afarta Jardiin.

“We have shot dead nine government soldiers in Mogadishu since Ramadan started. We shall continue and intensify the operation,” abu Musab said.

The group had previously said its gunmen shot dead three people on Sunday and killed another three government employees on Monday in two separate bomb blasts.

The government and African Union peacekeepers have stepped up security to try to stop the Ramadan attacks by al-Shabab, which has waged a seven-year campaign to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law in the mainly Christian country.

The militants view people who work for the government, such as the security forces, as collaborators with non-Muslims due to the involvement in Somalia of African Union soldiers, the United Nations and Western powers trying to contain the group.

Police officer Nur Jamac said al-Shabab shot the three soldiers in the head on Tuesday as they talked in the street.

In the past year or so, al-Shabab has killed dozens of people in guerrilla-style assaults in Mogadishu, on U.N. offices, the presidential compound, parliament and the courts.

In a separate attack, police in Afgoye, a district 30 km southwest of Mogadishu, said two clan elders were assassinated by pistol-wielding assailants on Monday.

It was not immediately clear who was behind that attack, a senior police officer in Afgoye told Reuters.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG