MOGADISHU, Somalia: No less than 10 individuals had been killed on Sunday (Could 18) after a suicide bomber focused a queue of younger recruits registering on the Damanyo navy base within the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses informed Reuters.
Youngsters had been lining up on the base’s gate when the attacker detonated their explosives, they mentioned.
A navy captain who gave his identify as Suleiman described the assault as he had seen it unfold.
“I used to be on the opposite facet of the street. A rushing tuk-tuk stopped, a person alighted, bumped into the queue, after which blew himself up. I noticed 10 individuals useless, together with recruits and passers-by. The dying toll might rise,” he mentioned.
Dozens of deserted sneakers and the stays of the suicide bomber had been seen on the scene.
One other witness, Abdisalan Mohamed, mentioned he had seen “a whole bunch of youngsters on the gate as we handed by in a bus”.
“Abruptly, a deafening blast occurred, and the world was coated by dense smoke. We couldn’t see the main points of casualties,” he mentioned.
Medical workers on the navy hospital informed Reuters they’d acquired 30 injured individuals from the blast and that six of them had died instantly.
Authorities forces shortly cordoned off the complete space.
There was no speedy declare of accountability for the assault and authorities officers couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
The assault echoed an analogous incident in 2023 when a suicide bomber killed 25 troopers on the Jale Siyad base, situated reverse the Damanyo facility.
Sunday’s assault adopted the assassination on Saturday of Colonel Abdirahmaan Hujaale, commander of battalion 26, within the Hiiran area, amid native experiences of al-Shabaab militant infiltration into authorities and safety forces.
