MOGADISHU (Reuters) – At least 10 people were killed on Saturday when a suicide bomber hit makeshift kiosks in the Somali capital hours after Islamist militants from Al Shabaab attacked two national army bases outside the city, the government said.
“A suicide bomber blew himself up under trees where poor mothers sold tea, milk and (narcotic leaf) khat,” Ministry of Information spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar told Reuters, adding that more people were injured in the attack.
There was no immediate response from the al Shabaab, who had previously claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Bariire and Awdhigle army bases.
The military said earlier that there had been casualties on both sides in those attacks, but it was now in control.
The bases, located about 100 km (60 mi) southwest of Mogadishu, were hit by two explosions, witnesses said. A third blast targeted a convoy of troops rushing to the bases from the capital after the attack, she added.
Militants from Al Shabaab, which has links with Al Qaeda, have committed years of attacks and tolls on trade in a campaign to enact strict religious laws.
Saturday’s attacks come amid heightened fears that the group could try to exploit vulnerabilities created by the failure to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which should take place in February.
Hussein Nur, a military officer, said the army lost “several” soldiers in the attack on the bases, without specifying a precise number.
The army sent reinforcements from other stations, killing an unknown number of attackers in the ensuing battle, he told Reuters.
The military had taken control of both bases and the surrounding area and “We are chasing the militants in the surrounding jungle,” he said.
Al Shabaab said it had carried out a vehicle suicide attack on Bariire base while also attacking the nearby Awdhigle base with a car bomb and hunters to prevent troops stationed there from reinforcing Bariire.
“We overran the Bariire base, burned three military vehicles and took two vehicles,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters, referring to a brief occupation of Bariire.
A third vehicle-borne explosive device hit a convoy of government forces racing from Mogadishu with reinforcements, he said. He also said victims had been killed in the attacks on both sides.
Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh Written by Duncan Miriri Edited by Frances Kerry