South Central MFA
     Darren Scheets-South Central Manager
       Steven Koch-Bulk Plant Manager of Birch Tree, Crocker, Salem, & Rolla

 

Extremists Attack Somalia Gov't Office 03/23 10:32

   MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Gunmen set off a suicide car bombing and then 
stormed a government building in Somalia's capital Saturday, killing at least 
five people including the country's deputy labor minister, police said. It was 
the latest attack by Islamic extremists in the troubled Horn of Africa nation.

   After an hours-long gunbattle, Somalia's security forces took back control 
of the building in Mogadishu on Saturday afternoon from at least five attackers 
who forced their way into the government building that houses the ministries of 
labor and public works, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press.

   Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, Somalia's deputy minister of labor and social 
affairs, was killed in his ground-floor office shortly after gunmen entered the 
building, he said.

   Hussein said at least 10 other people were wounded in the attack, which the 
al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group has claimed responsibility for.

   Dozens of people were inside the building at the time since Saturday is a 
working day in Somalia. The building is not far from the headquarters of the 
Somali intelligence agency.

   As the attack unfolded, gunfire could be heard from inside the building. 
White smoke billowed from the scene, according to witnesses.

   A similar attack targeting a busy area in Mogadishu at the end of February 
killed at least 24 people.

   Al-Shabab, Africa's most active Islamic extremist group, has been fighting 
for years to take power and create an Islamic state in Somalia. It frequently 
carries out suicide bombings targeting public places, hotels and government 
offices despite being pushed out of Mogadishu. It mostly operates from rural 
areas in the country's south.

   African Union peacekeepers stationed in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the 
country have helped Somali forces to keep al-Shabab fighters at bay.

   The extremist group has also carried out many deadly attacks in neighboring 
Kenya in retaliation over the country's deployment in 2011 of peacekeepers in 
Somalia.

   The U.S. military has carried out a number of deadly airstrikes in recent 
months against al-Shabab.


(KA)