At least 15 people were killed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Sunday by a suicide car bombing believed to be a failed assassination attempt targeting the new Somali military chief, Ahmed Mohamed Irfid.
The blast occurred on a busy street near the Somali defense ministry. The bomber attempted to crash the armed vehicle into an envoy carrying Irfid but hit a minibus carrying civilians instead. "When we arrived at the scene, we counted bodies of 15 people, most of them were severed," said Mire Aden, a police chief. "A number of soldiers are among the dead," Aden reported, and none of the injured civilians survived.
The al-Shabaab terrorist organization, which frequently bombs official targets in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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