Hiiraan Online
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) --- Militants from the Al-Qaeda linked group in Somalia stormed Somalia's higher education ministry compound on Tuesday after a suicide car bomber detonated explosives-laden car at the gate, killing at least 12 people.
The brazen attack on the compound comes few days after the Al-Shabab group carried a deadly siege at Garissa University in north-eastern Kenya, killing at least 147 people.
Al-Shabab group has claimed the responsibility for the latest attack.
Security officials told HOL that the attackers took positions inside the ministry, engaging with guards and reinforcement troops who arrived the scene after attackers entered the compound.
Police officials confirmed that the director general of the Ministry of Higher Education Ismail Yusuf was wounded in the attack.
At least 15 people were reported to have been wounded in the siege.
Somalia's special security forces have ended the siege in a dramatic counter attack to secure the building. Troops also rescued some of the ministry's employees trapped inside.
The latest complex attack highlights the security challenges facing the government despite the ouster of the Islamist fighters from the capital and surrounding regions.
The Al-Shabab group which once ruled almost the entire capital wages a guerrilla attack across Somalia, targeting government and African Union officials.