Somalia Car Bombs Kill at Least Nine

Security personnel and ambulances are stationed near destroyed and damaged buildings after an car bombing targeted the education ministry in Mogadishu on October 29, 2022. (AFP)
Security personnel and ambulances are stationed near destroyed and damaged buildings after an car bombing targeted the education ministry in Mogadishu on October 29, 2022. (AFP)
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Somalia Car Bombs Kill at Least Nine

Security personnel and ambulances are stationed near destroyed and damaged buildings after an car bombing targeted the education ministry in Mogadishu on October 29, 2022. (AFP)
Security personnel and ambulances are stationed near destroyed and damaged buildings after an car bombing targeted the education ministry in Mogadishu on October 29, 2022. (AFP)

At least nine people, including children, died on Saturday in twin car bomb attacks targeting Somalia's education ministry in the capital Mogadishu, security officers and witnesses said.

Two cars packed with explosives were detonated minutes apart near the busy Zobe junction and followed by gunfire.

"I was among the first security officers to reach the area, I saw dead bodies of nine people most of them civilians including women and children," said security officer Ahmed Ali, adding that dozens had been wounded.

Another security officer Yusuf Abdullahi gave a similar toll.

Police spokesman Sadik Dudishe did not give a death toll figure but said the incident was being investigated.

"The ruthless terrorists killed mothers. Some of them died with their children trapped on their backs," he told reporters at a press briefing, adding the attackers had targeted "students and other civilians".

The response by security forces had stopped the attackers from reaching their intended location, Dudishe said.

The afternoon explosions shattered windows of nearby buildings, sent shrapnel flying and clouds of smoke and dust into the air.

Abdirahman Ise, a witness, said the road had been busy when the first blast went off.

"I saw huge smoke in the ministry area and there is massive destruction," another witness, Amino Salad, said.

The attack happened at a busy junction where a truck packed with explosives blew up on October 14, 2017, killing 512 people and injuring more than 290.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but extremist group Al-Shabaab remains a potent force in the troubled Horn of Africa nation despite multinational efforts to degrade its leadership.

The extremists have been seeking to overthrow the fragile foreign-backed government in Mogadishu for about 15 years.

Its fighters were driven out of the capital in 2011 by an African Union force but the group still controls swathes of countryside and has the capacity to wage deadly strikes on civilian and military targets.

They use threats of violence to collect taxes in territory under their jurisdiction.

The group last week claimed responsibility for an attack on a hotel in the port city of Kismayo that killed nine people and wounded 47 others.

In August, the group launched a 30-hour gun and bomb attack on the popular Hayat hotel in Mogadishu, killing 21 people and wounding 117.

'All-out war'

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected in May, vowed after the August siege to wage "all-out war" on the extremists.

In September he urged citizens to stay away from areas controlled by the extremists, saying the armed forces and tribal militia were ratcheting up offensives against them.

A joint US-Somali drone strike killed one of the militants' most senior commanders on October 1.

Just hours after his death was announced, a triple bombing in the southern city of Beledweyne killed at least 30 people.

In addition to violence, Somalia -- like its neighbors in the Horn of Africa -- is in the grip of the worst drought in more than 40 years. Four failed rainy seasons have wiped out livestock and crops.

The conflict-wracked nation is considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change but is particularly ill-equipped to cope with the crisis as it battles the deadly insurgency.



Danish General Says He Is Not Losing Sleep over US Plans for Greenland

FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
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Danish General Says He Is Not Losing Sleep over US Plans for Greenland

FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

The head of Denmark's Arctic command said the prospect of a US takeover of Greenland was not keeping him up at night after talks with a senior US general last week but that more must be done to deter any Russian attack on the Arctic island.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the United States might acquire Greenland, a vast semi-autonomous Danish territory on the shortest route between North America and Europe vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.

Trump has not ruled out taking the territory by force and, at a congressional hearing this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not deny that such contingency plans exist.

Such a scenario "is absolutely not on my mind," Soren Andersen, head of Denmark's Joint Arctic Command, told Reuters in an interview, days after what he said was his first meeting with the general overseeing US defense of the area.

"I sleep perfectly well at night," Anderson said. "Militarily, we work together, as we always have."

US General Gregory Guillot visited the US Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on June 19-20 for the first time since the US moved Greenland oversight to the Northern command from its European command, the Northern Command said on Tuesday.

Andersen's interview with Reuters on Wednesday were his first detailed comments to media since his talks with Guillot, which coincided with Danish military exercises on Greenland involving one of its largest military presences since the Cold War.

Russian and Chinese state vessels have appeared unexpectedly around Greenland in the past and the Trump administration has accused Denmark of failing to keep it safe from potential incursions. Both countries have denied any such plans.

Andersen said the threat level to Greenland had not increased this year. "We don't see Russian or Chinese state ships up here," he said.

DOG SLED PATROLS

Denmark's permanent presence consists of four ageing inspection vessels, a small surveillance plane, and dog sled patrols tasked with monitoring an area four times the size of France.

Previously focused on demonstrating its presence and civilian tasks like search and rescue, and fishing inspection, the Joint Arctic Command is now shifting more towards territorial defense, Andersen said.

"In reality, Greenland is not that difficult to defend," he said. "Relatively few points need defending, and of course, we have a plan for that. NATO has a plan for that."

As part of the military exercises this month, Denmark has deployed a frigate, F-16s, special forces and extra troops, and increased surveillance around critical infrastructure. They would leave next week when the exercises end, Andersen said, adding that he would like to repeat them in the coming months.

"To keep this area conflict-free, we have to do more, we need to have a credible deterrent," he said. "If Russia starts to change its behavior around Greenland, I have to be able to act on it."

In January, Denmark pledged over $2 billion to strengthen its Arctic defense, including new Arctic navy vessels, long-range drones, and satellite coverage. France offered to deploy troops to Greenland and EU's top military official said it made sense to station troops from EU countries there.

Around 20,000 people live in the capital Nuuk, with the rest of Greenland's 57,000 population spread across 71 towns, mostly on the west coast. The lack of infrastructure elsewhere is a deterrent in itself, Andersen said.

"If, for example, there were to be a Russian naval landing on the east coast, I think it wouldn't be long before such a military operation would turn into a rescue mission," he said.