Somali militants kill six in bomb attack on U.N. vehicle

(Reuters) – Somali militant group al Shabaab bombed a minivan carrying staff to a United Nations office in the semi-autonomous Puntland region on Monday, killing six people including four from the global body’s children’s fund UNICEF, officials said.

Images posted on social media show a blood-spattered white vehicle, its windows shattered and the roof blown off by the blast in the region’s administrative capital Garowe.

UNICEF said in a statement the improvised explosive device attack occurred when its staff were travelling to the office from their guest house nearby and that four more of its staff were seriously wounded.

“Our immediate thoughts are with the families of the four staff members who were killed and with those who were injured. All of us at UNICEF are deeply saddened and deeply angered,” said Anthony Lake, its executive director.

Nicholas Kay, the U.N. Special Representative for Somalia, said two guards also died in the attack.

“The complete disregard for the lives of people working on the humanitarian and development needs of the people of Somalia is despicable,” he said in a statement.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has staged a string of attacks in Somalia and surrounding countries aimed at imposing its harsh brand of Islam and overthrowing the Somali government, which is backed by Western donors and African peacekeepers.

“We are behind the Garowe attack,” al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters.