The death toll from an Al-Shabab attack on Somalia’s higher education ministry has risen to 17 people, officials said Tuesday, in the latest deadly attack against Somali government institutions.
The attack which started with a suicide car bomb at the gate of the ministry followed by gunmen has sent shock waves across Somali capital which has seen numerous similar deadly attacks for the past
few years.
Somali officials said the dead include one African Union soldier who was shot dead during a battle with the assailants who were fighting to force their way into the compound occupied by dozens of officials and government employees.
The brazen attack on the compound comes few days after the Al-Shabab group carried a deadly siege at Garissa University in North-Eastern Kenya, killing at least 147 people.
Al-Shabaab has claimed the responsibility for the latest attack.
Police officials have confirmed that the director general of the Ministry of Higher Education Ismail Yusuf was wounded in the attack.
At least 15 people were reported to have been wounded in the siege.
Somalia’s special security forces have ended the siege in a dramatic counter attack to secure the building. Troops also rescued some of the ministry’s employees trapped inside.
The latest complex attack highlights the security challenges facing the government despite the ouster of the Islamist fighters from the capital and surrounding regions.
The Al-Shabab group which once ruled almost the entire capital wages a guerrilla attack across Somalia, targeting government and African Union officials.
Hiiraan Online
Tuesday, April 14, 2015