A group of Al-Shabaab militants heading for battle with Somali government soldiers and allied forces
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I An explosion which rocked a military academy in the Somali capital on Wednesday is suspected to have injured delegates from one of the countries supporting the Somali Government.
The United States, European Union and Turkey are among those who have been involved in Somali military training.
It was however not immediately clear if anyone else was injured or killed in the explosion at the Jaalle Siyaad Military Academy, one of Somalia’s main training centres for army recruits.
Although a source said some delegates were rescued from the site of the blast, tt was not immediately clear what delegation might have been, and how many officials were injured.
However, a statement from Al-Shabaab, which has long staged deadly attacks in Somalia against both government and civilian targets, said a suicide bomber targeted a Western delegation that was training recruits.
“A suicide bomber entered the base targeting the Western experts who train soldiers,” the militant group said in a statement, adding there were casualties, without providing any details.
An eye witness said he heard a sudden blast, then gunfire broke out inside the base, which resulted into a huge cloud of smoke.
Somalia’s defence ministry officials said they were investigating an explosion at a military training school in Mogadishu, an incident claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militant group as a suicide attack.
A new African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia replaced a larger force at the start of this year, but its funding is uncertain. The United States, the previous funder, is opposed to a plan to transition to a U.N. financing model.
