Car bombs, assault on police base kill 6
Six people were killed in a gun and car-bomb assault on a police building in the centre of the Somali capital that also left seven assailants dead, Security Minister Abdirasak Omar Mohamed said yesterday.
Some of the attackers rammed two cars into the building in central Mogadishu and others tried to storm it, he told reporters.
"All of the seven gunmen have been killed, some of them were shot by the security forces and others detonated themselves," he said.
"Five civilians died in the road and one policeman, so that the overall casualty number of deaths is 13," he added.
Earlier, security official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP that "terrorist elements" had smashed two cars packed full of explosives into the headquarters of the police's criminal investigations department.
An AFP correspondent heard an exchange of gunfire after the explosions, which took place near a busy junction in the city.
Al jazeera said Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militants, who are fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government, claimed responsibility of the attack.
The blasts came just days after at least 13 people were killed in twin bombings near Mogadishu airport and UN and African Union buildings. That attack was also claimed Shabaab militants.
The Shabaab were forced out of the capital five years ago but continue to carry out regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets. In recent months they have claimed deadly assaults on military bases as well as civilian targets including hotels.
Somalia was supposed to hold national elections this year but is instead going to hold what diplomats call a "limited franchise election" in which ordinary citizens do not participate.
The UN now hopes a one-person-one-vote election will be possible in 2020.
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