A Somali Islamist group on Monday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted the Horn of Africa country’s prime minister, according to a statement posted on the Internet.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has accused al-Qaeda of being behind Sunday’s suicide bombing that killed seven people outside his home in Mogadishu, and said its militants had to be eliminated.
”A lion of the Mujahideen Youth Movement, our brave brother Abdul-Aziz Mohammad Semter … carried out a heroic martyrdom operation at the residence of the apostate prime minister,” the group said in the statement.
”The operation … resulted in several deaths and injuries and we will provide the details of the operation at a later stage,” said the group, adding that the will of the bomber will also be posted.
Five soldiers and two civilians were killed when the bomber detonated a vehicle rigged with explosives at the gates of Gedi’s residence in a heavily guarded neighbourhood.
African Union peacekeepers raced to the area and whisked the prime minister to safety.
”Your brethren at the Mujahideen Youth Movement are pressing on with their holy fight against all occupiers and apostates.”
Near daily attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian military allies are blamed on members of a defeated Islamist movement who have vowed to wage an ”Iraq-style” insurgency.
Gedi’s interim administration is struggling to impose its authority on the anarchic nation.
The posting could not be immediately verified but was on a site used by al Qaeda and other Islamists. – Reuters