Roadside bomb wounds soldiers in Somalia

No group has yet claimed responsibility for either attack, but al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for recent attacks in Somalia over the recent years.

News Keydmedia Online
7 February 2021

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Three Somali soldiers were wounded Sunday when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the northwestern Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The IED bomb ripped through a police vehicle carrying soldiers protecting Turkish construction engineers undertook the Mogadishu-Afgoye road construction, a multi-million project funded by Qatar.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for either attack, but al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for recent attacks in Somalia over the recent years.

It was just seven days after 11 people died in the Al-Shabaab siege at Afrik hotel in the capital, the deadliest single-day terrorist assault recorded since the start of this year.

Al-Shabaab has in the past targeted the Turkish interests in the country with car bombings in revenge for Ankara’s involvement in the training of the Somali national army [SNA] fighting against the extremist group.

Last January, an Al-Shabaab suicide bomber killed at least five people, including two Turks, and injured 14 others near the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Also, a group of Turkish engineers was among those killed in a late December 2019 car bomb blast at an Ex-control Afgoye checkpoint in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people.

Turkey has been a key source of aid to Somalia following a famine in 2011 as Ankara seeks to increase its influence in the Horn of Africa to counter Gulf rivals like Saudi Arabia and UAE.

KON English News Desk