SOMALIA: At least 28 people are killed when Islamist militants ram a car packed with explosives into a police compound before gunmen try to storm the building north of Somalia's capital

Record ID: 354050

  • Title: SOMALIA: At least 28 people are killed when Islamist militants ram a car packed with explosives into a police compound before gunmen try to storm the building north of Somalia's capital
  • Date: 19th November 2013
  • Summary: BALADWEYNE, SOMALIA (NOVEMBER 19, 2013) (REUTERS) DESTROYED POLICE STATION / DEBRIS
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAAREA8MQHDW6XN5LVQ2SIECDKB
  • Story Text: Islamist militants rammed a car bomb into a police compound north of Somalia's capital on Tuesday (November 19) and opened fire on officers, leaving at least 28 people dead, officials and witnesses said.
    Al Shabaab - the al Qaeda-linked group that claimed responsibility for a deadly raid on a shopping mall in neighbouring Kenya in September - said it carried out the morning assault.
    Gunfire rang out at the police station in Baladweyne, near the border with Ethiopia, into the early afternoon as locals rushed for cover.
    African Union (AU) peacekeepers and Somali troops surrounded the compound and opened fire. Witnesses said the shooting inside then stopped.
    Seven civilians, 10 militants and 11 police officers were killed, said Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Osman - figures that were confirmed by several people at the scene.
    Some witnesses said the militants blasted their way through the gate and sprayed people inside with bullets.
    Nabdi Laqanyo, mayor of Somlia's Hiran region where Baladweyne is located, told Reuters the attackers battled to gain access to the compound after the car bomb attack.

    "The first suicide attack erupted at the first gate of Baladweyne and killed soldiers and civilians around the police station after they started firing at the back gate. Our forces killed the attackers from the back entrance," he said.
    Al Shabaab has been driven out of many of its strongholds, including Mogadishu and Baladweyne, over the past two years. But it has kept up car bombings and guerrilla attacks.
    Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military spokesman, said 25 Somali policemen and 18 Djiboutian members of the country's AMISOM peacekeeping force were killed. He told Reuters many of the militants managed to get away unharmed.
    The Islamists have exaggerated the number of casualties in the past, just as government officials have at times played down the dead in clashes with insurgents.
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