MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2022) A gun-and-bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, in the early hours of Wednesday left five people dead and 16 others wounded, Somalian media reported, citing the police.
Heavy gunfire and suicide car bomb blasts ripped through the city's outskirts overnight as Al Shabaab extremists (affiliate movement of al Qaeda terrorist group, banned in Russia) invaded outlying neighborhoods, the Garowe Online news portal cited the police as saying.
The Somalian daily cited police as saying that two women and three soldiers were killed in a string of bombings.
Internal Security Minister Abdullahi Nor said on Twitter that the offensive began at around 1 a.m. (22:00 GMT Tuesday), with militants targeting police stations and checkpoints. He added that security forces had "defeated the enemy."
The attack comes as the impoverished Eastern African country continues to grapple with political instability and a humanitarian crisis caused by one of the region's worst droughts in decades.
