24th January, 2017
No fewer than four soldiers were killed and five wounded on Tuesday when a roadside bomb that Islamist insurgents said they planted exploded outside a military camp in a town near Mogadishu, officials said.
The blast in Afgoye, about 30 km (18 miles) south-west of the capital, took place a day after the al Shabaab group carried out a raid in the same town that was repulsed by government troops, Maj. Osman Abdulle, a police officer, told Reuters.
“Last night, we repulsed the militants who attacked us.
“They must have planted the bomb,” he said.
Al-Shabaab, which has been waging an insurgency across Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bombing. The group is fighting to topple the Western-backed government in Mogadishu.
“We planted the bomb last night. At least seven soldiers died,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.