By Nour Geidi
MOGADISHU
The Al-Shabaab militant group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed five people – along with the bomber – outside Mogadishu airport earlier in the day.
In a release posted on a website associated with the group, Al-Shabaab spokesman Abu Musaab said the attack had "targeted foreign officers" outside the airport.
The targeted officers, he said, had contributed to the "crusaders' assault on the Muslim people of Somalia."
The spokesman said the attack had left an unspecified number of Somali security officers dead, going on to threaten additional attacks on government sites and African peacekeepers deployed in the country.
Earlier Wednesday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle outside Mogadishu airport, killing himself and five others, including a police officer.
Reliable sources told The Anadolu Agency that the bomb had gone off as a UN convoy passed nearby, but that no casualties had been reported among its passengers.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
Earlier this year, the country had appeared to inch closer to stability after government troops and African Union forces drove the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab from most of its strongholds.
www.aa.com.tr/en
