Africa

7 Killed in Mogadishu Suicide Blasts

Last Updated: January 02, 2017 10:20 AM

• Harun Maruf

---

Somali policemen look at the wreckage of a destroyed car at the scene of a suicide attack at a checkpoint outside the main base of an African Union peacekeeping force in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Jan. 2, 2017.

Share

At least seven people were killed and 17 others injured in two huge suicide car bombs near Mogadishu international airport on Monday, ambulances services and Somali officials said.
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. This was the second time the group used the tactic of back-to-back suicide vehicles, with the first meant to provoke panic and the second to cause maximum casualties.
The first of the two explosions targeted a checkpoint manned by Somali national security forces around mid-day local time. Immediately after the first explosion, a second car drove at high speed through the checkpoint and detonated outside the Peace Hotel opposite the airport, residents said.
Both explosions took place near Medina Gate, one of the main entrances of the airport.

An ambulance arrives at the scene of Monday's suicide bombing in a Mogadishu neighborhood in Somalia, Jan. 2, 2017. (Photo - Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle for VOA's Somali Service)

“First I heard gunshots, then a car explosion and then we took a duck,” said a witness who asked not to be named for security reasons. “When we came out to help the wounded we saw a big truck drive through it (checkpoint) and it exploded.”
The second blast was caused by a truck bomb and it exploded at the road between the airport and Peace Hotel, witnesses said.