Al Shabab bombers kill 13 near Mogadishu airport

The Al Qaeda-affiliated militant group said it was targeting African Union forces supporting the government.

Somali security officers gather at the scene of a car bomb attack at the base for the African Union forces in Mogadishu on July 26, 2016. Said Yusuf Warsame / EPA

Mogadishu // At least 13 people were killed in twin bombings by Al Shabab militants near the Somali capital’s airport on Tuesday.

One suicide car bomber tried to speed through the barrier at the UN Mine Action Services office but guards shot at the car. The second car bomber detonated at a checkpoint manned by Somali security forces near the main base of African Union forces in Somalia.

“At least 13 people were confirmed to have died in two explosions, one of the vehicles went off near a security checkpoint and another close to a UN compound,” said Bishaar Abdi Gedi, a Somali police official.

Al Shabab said its bombers “targeted two different locations where the so-called Amisom peacekeepers are stationed”, referring to the 22,000-strong African Union force.

The Amisom base adjoins Mogadishu’s airport, which is heavily fortified.

African Union troops were deployed to Somalia in 2007 to defend the weak UN-backed government against attacks by Al Shabab. The Al Qaeda-affiliated militants are waging an insurgency to establish an Islamic emirate.

Al Shabab was forced out of Mogadishu five years ago but continues to carry out regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets.

In recent months the group has attacked other Amison bases as well as hotels. Earlier this month, eight soldiers were killed when an Al Shabab suicide car bomber targeted a Somali army training camp and attackers then entered the base on foot.

Al Shabab has also launched attacks in countries that have contributed to the AU force, which includes troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

This year is considered critical for the group, which is eager to disrupt an expected change of government leadership due in the coming months.

Somalia was supposed to hold national elections this year but is instead going to hold what diplomats call a “limited franchise election” in which ordinary citizens do not participate. The UN now hopes a one-person-one-vote election will be possible in 2020.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press