At least three people have been killed and two others wounded in an attack with improvised rockets on the Somali capital, Mogadishu, said an official.
“The attack was by rockets. The attackers used an unconventional method to launch the rockets and they were fired from the outskirts of Mogadishu. One of the rockets landed on a civilian house, killing three family members, including the father,” said Somali police spokesman Major Sadiq Aden Ali Doodishe.
At least two other people were wounded and rushed to a hospital for treatment following the attack on Tuesday.
The police have not identified the target of the attack but have arrested one suspect after an operation conducted by security forces, Doodishe told Anadolu news agency.
Palace targeted
The Somali General Kahiye Police Academy and other security offices are located near where the rockets landed.
Media affiliated with the al-Shabaab armed group reported that it claimed responsibility for the deadly attack and said it targeted the Somali presidential palace in Mogadishu, which has previously been targeted by the group with mortar attacks.
Al-Shabaab has intensified its attacks in the country, targeting African Union peacekeepers and Somali government troops since Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared an “all-out war” against the terror group last year.
In early June, 54 soldiers from Uganda serving under the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia were killed during an attack by al-Shabaab in the town of Bulo Marer, some 110 kilometers south of Mogadishu.
Military gains
Since Mohamud's declaration, the army has liberated large swathes of territory from the terrorists in the country’s south and central provinces, including the strategic coastal town of Harardhere, which has been under the group’s control for more than a decade.
The terrorist group also launched a deadly attack targeting a popular hotel in Mogadishu in June, which marked the fourth major attack by the group in the country in less than two weeks.
The group has been fighting the Somali government and the African Union mission in Somalia since 2007. Somalia has been plagued by insecurity for years, with the main threats from al-Shabaab and the Daesh/ISIS terrorist groups.
