Shabaab Suicide Assault Team Storms UN Compound in Mogadishu
A suicide assault team from Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, attacked a United Nations base in the capital of Somalia, killing several UN employees after briefly taking over the compound.
The suicide assault team, which was made up of eight fighters armed with assault rifles and suicide vests, struck at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) compound earlier today. The attack began as a suicide bomber detonated “a pickup truck rigged with explosives” at the main gate, according to a UN statement. The blast breached the perimeter of the compound, and allowed the seven other Shabaab fighters to enter the base.
African Union soldiers surrounded the UNDP base and engaged the Shabaab fighters, killing them all after nearly two hours of fighting.
Reports of casualties indicate that more than 20 people were killed in the fighting. Four “UNDP foreign staff, four Somali security guards,” and seven “civilians” were killed, according to Garowe.
Shabaab claimed credit for the attack in a series of Tweets on its official Twitter site, HSMPRESS1.
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