By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar
MOGADISHU
(Reuters) - At least 19 people were killed in the Somali
capital on Sunday in bomb attacks carried out by militants linked to al Qaeda
and subsequent gun battles with the al Shabaab fighters, breaking a fragile
return to peace in Mogadishu.
A bomb exploded outside law courts in the city as gunmen
stormed the compound. Security forces then arrived and battled the fighters
inside. Later, a bomb exploded near an African Union and Turkish Red Crescent
convoy on the way to the airport.
Al Shabaab said it carried out the attacks.
"About seven well-armed men in government uniform
entered the court today as soon as a car bomb exploded at the gate. We thought
they were government soldiers," said Aden Sabdow, who works at the mayor's
office adjacent to the court.
"Armed men entered the court and then we heard a
blast. Then they started opening fire. We do not know the number of
casualties," said Hussein Ali, who works at the courts.
Somali forces arrived and laid siege to the compound and
there was a second blast while the two sides exchanged gunfire. Hours later,
the shooting stopped, but government forces said they believed some fighters
were still hiding inside.
Reuters reporters counted 16 bodies around the compound,
some of them in uniform, some not, but it was not clear how many of them were
government soldiers, attackers, or civilians.
Witnesses at the scene said in addition to the car bombs,
three of the gunmen who stormed the court also blew themselves up using
explosives strapped on their bodies.
Security in the coastal capital has improved greatly
since al Shabaab fled the city after an AU and Somali government military
offensive in August 2011. Now its rubble-strewn streets are choked with traffic
and constructions sites point to a new confidence as Somalis from abroad and
invest in their homeland.
But the threat persists from al Shabaab, which still
controls much of the countryside.
"We carried out a superb intense mission in
Mogadishu today. We killed 26 people including soldiers and court staff,"
said al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage.
"We assigned five special mujahideen for the court -
four of them entered and killed the people inside. The other mujahid with his
car bomb exploded when government soldiers gathered at the gate."
Al Shabaab routinely inflates the number of people it
kills.
AL SHABAAB STRIKES BACK
Security forces managed to rescue the Supreme Court
chairman and other officials, some of whom climbed out of buildings using
ladders.
"The supreme court chairman and other judges have
now safely arrived at the mayor's office through another door. Many ladders
have also been placed on the walls and some staff and civilians and have
managed to escape using the ladders," Sabdow said.
Later, a car bomb exploded at a building housing Somali
intelligence along the road to the airport as Turkish and African Union (AU)
vehicles were passing, police and witnesses said. Government forces then opened
fire and blocked the road.
"The car bomb exploded near the gate of a building
housing the Somali security. AU and Turkish cars were also passing there. We
are still investigating the target and casualties," Qadar Ali, a police
officer told Reuters.
Witnesses said three people were killed in the blast.
"I saw three dead people including a man, a woman
and a child. The ruined car bomb is in the middle of the road," Hussein
Bile, a witness told Reuters.
A Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity
said one of its Red Crescent vehicles was passing at the time of the explosion.
A Somali driver was killed and three Turkish passengers were wounded, the
official said.
Britain warned on April 5 it believed "terrorists
are in the final stages of planning attacks in Mogadishu".
In control of much of the capital Mogadishu between 2009
and 2011, al Shabaab has been forced out of most major cities in central and
southern Somalia by African Union peacekeepers.
But the hardline Islamist group has hit back with a
series of bomb attacks. In early April, a bomb went off outside the headquarters
of Somalia's biggest bank, Dahabshiil's, wounding at least two people hours
after al Shabaab ordered the company to cease operations in areas under its
control.
"Somalia, is moving and will keep moving forward and
will not be prevented to achieve the ultimate noble goal, a peaceful and stable
Somalia, by a few desperate terrorists," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
said in a statement.
Last month, al Shabaab claimed responsibility for suicide
car bomb targeting a senior Somali security official which killed at least 10
people in central Mogadishu. The security official survived the attack, the
city's deadliest this year.
(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Ankara;
Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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