Saturday September 20, 2014
A Somali government soldier surveys an explosion where local journalist Yusuf Keynan was killed in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, June 21, 2014. Keynan, who worked for Radio Mustaqbal, died after a bomb believed to have been planted in his car exploded.
MOGADISHU - At least two people were killed when members of terrorist group al-Shabaab riddled the car of a senior Somali government official with bullets, security officials said Saturday.Four attackers in a luxury vehicle fired at the car of Ali Mohamed Madobe in the Wdajir district of the capital Mogadishu, security official Mohamed Hassan told reporters.
"He was attacked while he was on his way to work by four suspected al-Shabaab fighters armed with pistols and an AK47 rifle," Hassan said.
Madobe's driver and bodyguard were killed in the attack, while Madobe was seriously injured.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Mus'ab confirmed the group's responsibility for the attack on pro-insurgent radio al-Andalus shortly after the shooting.
Security forces sealed off the area of the attack. An investigation was under way, according to Wadajir district administration official Ali Abdulle.
The radical Islamist group al-Shabaab once controlled most of southern and central Somalia along with parts of Mogadishu but has since been weakened by Somali and African Union military operations.
At the end of August, the Somali army announced a new military offensive against the group to capture areas still under al-Shabaab's control.
The al-Qaeda-linked group wants to establish an Islamic state in Somalia and has killed dozens of government officials this year.