Somalia’s Al-Shabab insurgents killed at least six people on Wednesday in a suicide attack on a diplomatic convoy from the United Arab Emirates in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police and the militants said.
“We have confirmed the death of six people, four of them civilians, while six others were also wounded, some seriously,” police officer Abdukadir Hassan said.
He said no UAE diplomats were hurt in the attack, with the Somali security staff escorting them stopping the bomber with their truck as the blast went off, AFP reported.
Al-Shabab said they carried out the attack, which is believed to be the first time the Al-Qaeda affiliate has targeted the UAE in Somalia. The UAE is involved in a number of security, infrastructure, development and humanitarian projects in Somalia.
Al-Shabab also said in a statement its militants carried out “a successful attack” on a delegation from the UAE.
“A suicide bomber rammed his car into the pickup truck and there were casualties,” said Somali security official Abdi Dahir. “There was a heavy explosion.”
A military convoy from the African Union force in Somalia was also passing nearby at the time of the attack close to the UAE embassy, witnesses said.
United Nations envoy to Somalia, Nick Kay, condemned the “utterly cruel terror attack against UAE in Somalia.” Kay said he had spoken to the UAE ambassador, Mohamed al-Osmani, who was not harmed in the attack.
Al-Shabab militants have carried out a string of revenge attacks in neighboring countries including the September 2013 attack in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, which left at least 67 people dead, and the April massacre of close to 150 students in Garissa in Kenya’s northeast.
