Gunfire and explosions rock Somalia's capital

Officials say the extremist Al Shabab movement attacked police stations and check points in Mogadishu

The wreckage of a car is seen burnt following an overnight attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, February 16, 2022. Reuters

Gunfire and explosions were heard in Somalia's capital Mogadishu in the early hours of Wednesday as Al Shabab militants attacked police stations and security check points.

Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab, which aims to topple Somalia's central government and impose severe laws, carries out frequent attacks against the government, including attacking a minibus carrying election delegates last week.

“The terrorists attacked the suburbs of Mogadishu and targeted our police stations and check points,” Minister of Internal Security Abdullahi Nor wrote on Twitter. “Our security defeated the enemy.”

There were no immediate details on casualties.

A Reuters witness who visited the scene of an attack on a police station in the Kahda district in the city's west said the building was destroyed, along with nearby houses.

Local resident Halima Faragh told Reuters the explosions sounded like an earthquake and said she and her family fled their home in fear.

Mogadishu police spokesman Abdifatah Aden said that Al Shabaab fighters had launched the attack on Kahda police station and had attacked another neighbourhood, Darusalam, in the city's north-east.

The attacks came at a time when the country is reeling under political instability because of sharp differences between clan leaders on the first democratic election in 50 years.

The elections were supposed to be held in February 2021 but clan leaders disagree on how to choose the new president.

Somalia has been in the grip of civil war for decades. The rise of extremist groups such as Al Shabab has made settling the civil conflict difficult.

Al Shabab, which takes its name from the Arabic word for youth, began attracting attention in 2006 after an Ethiopian military intervention at a request from the transitional government at the time.

The group once held sway over Mogadishu and large portions of the Somali countryside. However, an African Union-led military campaign and US air strikes have pushed it back from major population centres in recent years.

The Somali government, its allies in the region and the West have been locked in a war of attrition for a decade with the extremist movement, which has also claimed responsibility for several attacks and bombings in neighbouring countries.