Al-Shabab takfiris kill 8 in attack near Somalia’s Presidential Palace

At least eight have been killed at a security checkpoint in the Somali capital near the presidential palace in a terrorist attack on Saturday claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab takfiri terrorist group.

The checkpoint is the one used by Somalia’s president and prime minister on their way to and from the airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

Nine other people were wounded in the bombing, police spokesman Abdifatah Adam Hassan said.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group has claimed responsibility. The group often carries out such attacks in the capital.

Police spokesman Abdifatah Aden Hassan told reporters at the scene the number of casualties could be higher as some of the dead and wounded were taken away by relatives after the attack targeting a convoy going into the palace.

“Al-Shabab is behind the blast. They killed eight people including a soldier and a mother and two children. Al-Shabab massacres civilians,” he said.

Al-Shabab, which wants to overthrow the government and impose its interpretation of Islamic law, frequently carries out such bombings.

The takfiri terrorist group confirmed it was behind the bombing in a brief statement.

Government spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu said among those killed was Hibaq Abukar, a women and human rights affairs adviser in Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble’s office.

“She was one of the pillars of PM’s office [for] women affairs,” he said on his Facebook page.

The takfiri terrorist group controlled the capital until 2011 when it was pushed out by African Union troops, but it still holds territory in the countryside and launches frequent attacks against government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.