Somali security look at the wreckage of a vehicle at the scene of an explosion Mogadishu
MOGADISHU, Jan 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Somalia’s government spokesperson was wounded in an explosion in the capital in a suspected suicide bomber attack, state-run media reported.
A photographer at the scene of the blast reported seeing body parts lying on the ground outside the house of Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, who was rushed to a hospital.
State-run Somali National News Agency said the explosion at a junction of a Mogadishu road was from a suicide bomber.
“A suicide bomber targeted the government spokesman who is now being treated in hospital for his injuries from the blast,” police spokesman Abdifatah Aden said.
Moalimuu is a senior media adviser to Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.
Nasra Bashir Ali, state media special correspondent in the prime minister’s office, where Moalimuu is based, said on Twitter he did not suffer life-threatening injuries in the attack, which targeted him as he was passing in his vehicle.
It was not the first time Moalimuu, a former journalist, had been targeted in an assassination attempt.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
Al-Shabaab – an al-Qaeda-linked armed group fighting to overthrow the country’s UN-backed government – often claims responsibility for attacks around Somalia. — NNN-AGENCIES
