A suicide bomber blew himself up in a military camp in the Somali town of Galkayo on Saturday, killing four officers, officials said, in an attack claimed by the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab terrorist group.
The dead included a military commander and two colonels, as well as the town’s mayor, Hirsi Yusuf Barre, told Reuters.
The camp houses a force made up of soldiers from the country’s semi-autonomous regions of Puntland and Galmudug who have been integrated into the federal army under efforts to unite the fractured country.
“The death toll may rise,” police officer Abdirahman Haji said.
According to Garowe Online, at least six people in total were killed and eight were wounded in the blast.
“A man wearing an explosive vest has detonated himself in a crowded restaurant in northern Galkayo targeting security officials drinking tea early in the morning, killing three security officials and two soldiers,” said Ahmed Abdullahi Yusuf, the minister of security for Puntland, told CNN.
Al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab, said it killed five people in the attack.
Al-Shabaab is fighting to topple Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on its interpretation of Islamic law.
“In areas it controls, al-Shabab enforces its own harsh interpretation of sharia, prohibiting various types of entertainment, such as movies and music; the sale of khat, a narcotic plant that is often chewed; smoking; and the shaving of beards. Stonings and amputations have been meted out to suspected adulterers and thieves. The group bans cooperation with humanitarian agencies, blocking aid deliveries as famine loomed in 2017. This forced some eight hundred thousand to flee their homes, according to the United Nations,” says the
Council on Foreign Relations.It added that “the governments of Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, and Yemen have been accused of financing the group—although most deny these claims.”
Since withdrawing from Mogadishu in 2011, the terrorist organization lost control of most of Somalia’s towns and cities, but it still has a strong presence in some regions.
Earlier this month, some five people were killed and 10 were injured when al-Shabaab detonated a bomb during a soccer game in the port city of Barawe, south of Mogadishu.
Perhaps the most infamous terrorist attack carried out by the group came in 2013 during the Westgate Mall attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, which left 68 people dead and 175 wounded.
The organization is also responsible for the April 2015 Garissa University attacks in Kenya, which left 150 people dead.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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