Al-Shabaab suicide bomber and gunmen kill 32 in Somalia beach attack
- Police killed five gunmen as a sixth ‘blew himself up’ killing 32 and wounding roughly 63
An Al-Shabaab suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a busy beach in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing 32 people and wounding scores more, in one of the deadliest attacks in months, police said on Saturday.
The al-Qaeda-linked jihadists have been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed federal government for more than 17 years and have previously targeted the Lido beach area, popular with businesspeople and officials.
Unverified videos shared online in the immediate aftermath of the attack showed people scattering along a street, with a number of clips purporting to show bloodied bodies lying on the beachfront.
“More than 32 civilians died in this attack and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically,” police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters during a press conference.
“Targeting and blasting to kill 32 members from the civilian population means these Kharijites are not going to target only government centres, soldiers and officials,” he said, using the term Somali officials adopt to describe Al-Shabaab.
The assault, for which Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility in a post on a pro-Shabaab website, began late on Friday when a suicide bomber detonated a device and gunmen stormed the area, according to police and witnesses.
Officer Mohamed Omar told reporters they had “shot civilians randomly”.
