{UAH} MILITANTS ATTACK PRESIDENTIAL PALACE IN SOMALIA

Militants Attack Presidential Palace in Somalia

By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and NICHOLAS KULISHFEB. 21, 2014

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A Somali soldier amid debris from the attack on Friday at the presidential palace in Mogadishu. Mohamed Abdiwahab/Agence France-Presse — Getty

MOGADISHU, Somalia — In a deadly attack on the heart of the Somali government, multiple explosions and a firefight erupted on Friday near the presidential palace in Mogadishu, killing 12 people, nine of them militants, officials said. The Shabab, the militant Somali Islamist group, claimed responsibility.

In a statement, the African Union Mission in Somalia said the attack began with a car bomb that went off at the entrance to the palace, followed by militants who tried to shoot their way into the compound, where the president and the speaker of Parliament live and have their offices.

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At a news conference at the palace, known as Villa Somalia, Abdikarim Hussein Guled, the minister for national security, said that among the dead were Gen. Nur Shirbow, a former deputy intelligence chief; Mohamud Hersi Abdulle, the permanent secretary for the office of the prime minister; and a Somali soldier. The bodies of seven of the militants were on display at the news conference; the other two had been destroyed by the car bomb.

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People walked past the bodies of seven Shabab rebels in front of the presidential palace. Mohamed Abdiwahab/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Somali president, Hassan Sheik Mohamud, was unharmed. In a statement, he said that the work of rebuilding a unified country and improving security nationwide “will in no way be deterred by today’s attack” and that the Shabab would be defeated.

“An act of terrorism, however unspeakable, does not hide the truth that this is a marginal group on the brink of extinction,” Mr. Mohamud said. Referring to the African Union Mission, he added, “The military campaign we are fighting with brave Somali and Amisom soldiers will eliminate our enemies.”

Witnesses reported hearing a loud explosion, followed by an exchange of gunfire and then other explosions around Villa Somalia. Ambulances were on the scene collecting the wounded, who included a local reporter for Kulmiye Radio.

A lawmaker, Salman Mohamed Sheik Dahir, who was slightly injured, said he had been in a mosque at the center of the compound where the president usually prays when the attack began. “We were in the middle of the Friday prayers and the president had not yet come down,” he told local reporters.

Ali Mohamud Raghe, a spokesman for the Shabab, said the group claimed responsibility for the attack. “The attack was well planned, aimed to kill or catch the leader of the infidels and carried out successfully by the mujahedeen,” Mr. Raghe said, according to local media, quoting from Al Andalus Radio, the Shabab’s official radio.

The government recently announced that it would attack Shabab strongholds and clear the remaining areas where the Shabab dominate in Somalia.

Three suicide bombers tried to assassinate Mr. Mohamud in September 2012 two days after his election, as he was holding a news conference at a hotel with the visiting Kenyan foreign minister. Mr. Mohamud was not harmed in that attack, but an African Union soldier was killed.

The attack on Villa Somalia came a week after at least five people were killedwhen a car loaded with explosives blew up near the entrance to the international airport in Mogadishu, an attack believed to be aimed at a passing United Nations convoy. The Shabab also claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Shabab came to prominence as a nationalist movement combating the United States-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006. The group seized control of large parts of the country, including Mogadishu.

Somali troops and African Union forces have forced the militants back in recent years, but for all their territorial gains have been unable to stem the tide of terrorist and guerrilla-style attacks. The Shabab even announced a ban recently on the use of the Internet in Mogadishu and areas under their control.

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