The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia Harakat Shabaab Muhajideen has carried out a suicide bombing targeting the city of Mogadishu entire administration. The attack was orchestrated early in the evening inside an office where the top officials were holding a security meeting and shortly after the United Nations Special Representative James Swan left the area. The Mayor of the City of Mogadishu Abdirahaman Yarisow has been critically injured. Most of the city’s Districts commissioners have been killed in the powerful suicide bombing. Among the dead district commissioners include the Waberi District commissioner Mahad Elmi and Wardihigley District Commissioner Zeynab Habsey.
The attack comes barely a few hours after 4 mortar shells landed at a residential neighborhood directly bordering the Presidential Palace and various attacks across the country. Earlier in the day, the group attacked Somali Army bases in El-Jalle and El-Salini killing and injuring several soldiers. The group also conducted a large scale attack targeting SNA base at Bulo-Barde in Hiraan prefecture towards the north of the country.
The group continues to demonstrate its capability to identify and orchestrate attacks in the country despite various security efforts by the weak federal government. The evening suicide bombing involved a suicide bomber who successfully bypassed security officers guarding a hall full of government officials and luckily, minutes after the UN Envoy James Swan left the hall. The bomber detonated his explosive belt killing and injuring a significant number of people.
