Gun and bomb attacks: Somali militants kill five in Mogadishu

Al Shabaab fighters say they detonated a car bomb that killed two soldiers guarding the Somali parliament.

MOGADISHU: Five soldiers and police were killed in the Somali capital on Saturday and a dozen others were wounded in bomb and gun attacks by militants, police and witnesses said. Al Shabaab fighters, who have threatened to step up attacks during the month of Ramazan, said they detonated a car bomb that killed two soldiers guarding the Somali parliament, a few hundred metres from the presidential compound. “This is our second attack against the parliament buildingand we shall continue it,” said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations. Police said soldiers guarding the parliament building had prevented it reaching its target.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2014.