Attacks outpost
Al-Shabab attacks an African Union base at El-Ade in southwestern Somalia. A spokesman for Al-Shabab claims that the attack killed more than 63 Kenyan soldiers. A Kenyan military official stated that the rebels attacked Somali soldiers, but that Kenyan soldiers had helped to resist the attack.
Car bombing
A car bomb explodes at the gate of Somalia’s presidential palace, in the capital Mogadishu, killing at least seven people and injuring ten. A conference debating Somalia’s 2016 elections had just ended in the compound. Presidential guards and a Turkish national are believed to be among the dead. It is not yet known who carried out the attack but the Islamist group Al-Shabab has targeted the palace before. Government spokesman:
The majority of the dead and injured were civilians.
Car bombing
Police say at least ten are dead due to a suspected suicide bomber crashing into a restaurant in central Mogadishu. Al Shabaab claims responsibility.
The death toll is sure to rise. A policeman opened fire to stop the car bomb but it was all in vain. The policeman died and the car bomb rammed into the gate in the busy restaurant…These are mostly civilians who were having lunch at the restaurant
Bomb attack on U.N. vehicle
Al Shabaab militants are suspected of bombing a United Nations vehicle outside of the U.N. compound in Garowe in the Puntland region. A police officer on scene:
A blast hit the bus carrying workers to the U.N. office . . . At least nine people died.
Of the confirmed dead, two are Kenyan and seven are Somali guards. The U.N. Special Representative for Somalia condemns the attack, saying he is:
. . . shocked and appalled by loss of life.
Hotel attack
More than ten people die, including Somali legislator Omar Ali Nor and Mogadishu’s deputy mayor Mohamed Aden, at a hotel in Mogadishu after a terrorist attack on a hotel where government officials were meeting. Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte is in hospital. A Islamic extremist rammed a vehicle containing explosive into the gate of the hotel and another extremist blew himself up. Lawmaker Mohamed Ali.
A dark day for our country