MOGADISHU – 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 gun battle, 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. (AP)
