MOGADISU (Reuters) – At least 10 people were killed on Saturday when a suicide bomber struck improvised kiosks in the Somali capital, hitting for hours after Islamist militants from Al Shabaab attacked two national army bases outside the city, he said the government.
“A suicide bomber blew himself up under trees, where poor mothers were selling tea, milk and (narcotic leaves) khat,” Information Ministry spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar told Reuters, adding that several people were injured in the attack. .
There were no immediate comments from Shabaab, who previously claimed responsibility for attacks on Bariire and Awdhigle army bases.
The military said earlier that there were casualties on both sides in the attacks, but it was now under control.
The bases, located about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, were hit by two explosions, witnesses said. A third blast targeted a convoy of troops that rushed to bases in the capital after the attack, they added.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Al Shabaab have been under attack for years and levied on trade taxes in a campaign to introduce a strict religious law.
Saturday’s attacks come amid heightened fears that the group could try to exploit the vulnerabilities created by the failure to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in February.
Hussein Nur, a military officer, said the army had lost “several” soldiers in the attack on the bases, without giving a precise number.
The army sent reinforcements from other stations, which killed an unidentified number of attackers in the ensuing battle, he told Reuters.
The army has taken control of both bases and the surrounding area, and “we are following the militants in the surrounding jungle,” he said.
Al Shabaab said it launched a suicide car attack on the Bariire base while simultaneously attacking the nearby Awdhigle base with a car bomb and fighters to prevent troops stationed there from strengthening the Bariire.
“We passed the Bariire base, burned three military vehicles and took two vehicles,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for Shabaab’s military operations, told Reuters, referring to a brief occupation of Bariire.
A third explosive device carried by vehicles hit a convoy of government troops flowing from Mogadishu with reinforcements, he said. He also said there were casualties on both sides in the attacks.
Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh Written by Duncan Miriri Writing by Frances Kerry