SOMALIA: At least 15 dead in al-Shabab assault

A gun battle between Somalia’s security forces and the armed group al-Shabab in the capital, Mogadishu, has ended, leaving 15 people dead, including the country’s deputy labour minister, police said. Al-Shabab gunmen on Saturday stormed Somalia’s ministries of labour and works after detonating a car bomb at the gates of the building, near the headquarters of […]

A gun battle between Somalia’s security forces and the armed group al-Shabab in the capital, Mogadishu, has ended, leaving 15 people dead, including the country’s deputy labour minister, police said.

Al-Shabab gunmen on Saturday stormed Somalia’s ministries of labour and works after detonating a car bomb at the gates of the building, near the headquarters of the country’s intelligence agency.

Minister Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla was killed in his ground-floor office shortly after the fighters entered the building, police officer Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press news agency.

Al-Shabab said one of its fighters had rammed the ministry building with a suicide car bomb, allowing others to enter it.

Eleven people were injured, Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Amin Ambulance Service said.

Nur said people were rescued with a ladder from the upper floors and that an exchange of gunfire ensued.