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Somalia’s Shabaab attack EU military convoy, two wounded
MOGADISHU, Oct 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A suicide bomber on Monday rammed a
vehicle loaded with explosives into a vehicle carrying a European Union
military convoy, injuring two civilians, police said.
Al-Shabaab Islamists claimed responsibility for the attack against
“European Union Christians”, which targeted vehicles carrying Italian
soldiers, in a statement on a pro-Shabaab website.
“The attacked convoy was coming from the ministry of defence when targeted
along the industrial road and … two civilians were wounded. The military
truck in the convoy that was struck was badly damaged,” police officer Ahmed
Ibrahim told AFP.
The Italian army said in a statement that five Italian vehicles were in the
convoy, and a vehicle with four soldiers onboard was “slightly damaged and
able to return to the base”.
“No Italian soldiers were injured in the event”, which took place some 700
metres from the defence ministry.
The European Training Mission in Somalia (EUTM) was launched in 2010 to
strengthen the country’s transitional government by offering military advice
and training.
Somalia collapsed into civil war in 1991 that destroyed state institutions
and has been wracked by an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency since 2006.
The Shabaab carry out regular bombings and armed assaults on government,
military and civilian targets in the capital in their fight to overthrow the
internationally backed government in Mogadishu.
BSS/AFP/MRI/2154 HRS