The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia Haraka Al-Shabaab Mujahideen Movement issued a detailed statement through its official propaganda wing, Al-Hijra, claiming responsibility of the Friday 23rd February 2018 attack outside the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) headquarters and the gates to the presidential palace Villa Somalia, and killing of 80 members of the presidential guard.
In the statement published by Al-Hijra, a propaganda wing of the terror group led by a Kenyan Ahmed Iman Ali aka Abu Zinira, Al-Shabaab claims killing 45 members of the elite presidential guard in the initial suicide vehicle bound explosive device (SVBIED) and approximately 35 members of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in the second SVBIED.
The terror group claims killing Colonel Abshar of the Presidential guard, officer Ahmed Hussein, and Abdul Razzaq Ali Mohamed, all members of the presidential guard.
The statement was given credit by the official spokesperson of the terror group, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Abu Musaab.
While the numbers maybe exaggerated, Mogadishu has been mute about the causalities and actual victims of the attack.
Al-Shabaab thrives in propaganda which overzealous elements amplify on their behalf. The El-Adde attack on a Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) forward operating base (FOB) was amplified by both the terror group, irresponsible journalists and media houses, even after the terror group issued a statement claiming killing 60 Kenyan soldiers. Somali and Kenyan media and bloggers hiked the figure to 200, a ridiculous figure even when the actual number of troops based in the FOB was 146.
