Al Shabaab claims attack on police station in central Somalia
Beledwayne, 19 Nov 2013 (SDN) -Islamist militants blasted their way into a police station in northern Somalia on Tuesday and opened fire on officers and civilians inside, leaving at least 10 people dead, officials and witnesses said.
Al Shabaab – the al Qaeda-linked movement that killed 67 people in a raid on a Nairobi shopping mall in September – claimed responsibility for the morning assault and told Reuters many of its men had since managed to get away, unharmed.
Gunfire rang out inside the police station in Baldweyne into the early afternoon as locals rushed for shelter.
African peacekeepers and Somali troops surrounded the police station and opened fire. Witnesses said the shooting inside then stopped.
Al Shabaab has been driven out of most its main strongholds, including Mogadishu and Baladweyne, a town close to the Ethiopian border, over the past two years. But it has kept up car bombings and guerrilla-style attacks.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al shabaab’s military spokesman, said the attackers had killed 25 Somali police men and 18 Djiboutian members of the country’s AMISOM peacekeeping force.
The Islamists have in the past exaggerated the number of casualties, just as officials have at time down played the dead in clashes with insurgents.
The attackers blew their way through the compound’s gates with a car bomb, said witnesses.
“First, a speeding car went past us and soon we heard a big explosion followed by gunfire. The car rammed into the gate of the police station. We can see a huge (plume of) smoke and hear exchange of gunfire,” said shopkeeper Nur Osman at the scene.
A nurse at a hospital in the town that is adjacent to the police station said doctors and patients were taking cover.
“I was outside when fighting began and now I cannot go in… It is very difficult to know the exact figure of casualties,” Nur Aden, a nurse at Baladweyne hospital told Reuters.
Somali legislator Dahir Amin Jesow said some of the attackers were among the 10 confirmed dead.
“The death toll can rise because the militants unexpectedly entered and shot anyone they saw. We do not yet know the exact number of attackers,” Jesow said.
Somali President Hassan sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack by al Shabaab, saying his government was determined to eliminate the Islamists.
Last month, a bomber killed 16 people in a cafe in the same district, targeting Ethiopian and Djibouti troops who al Shabaab accuses of invading Somalia.
The Horn of Africa country is trying to rebuild itself after two decades of civil war and lawlessness, backed by international aid as well as African Union peacekeepers, aimed at preventing it from becoming a haven for al Qaeda-style militants in East Africa.
Straddling a major highway that links south-western Somalia to southern and northern parts of the country, Baladweyne is the main gateway to the Ogaden region in Ethiopia and a strategically vital area that Addis Ababa has often controlled.
Source: Reuters