A suicide bomber and gunmen from the Islamist militant group Al Shabab attacked a busy beach in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, killing 32 people and wounding scores more in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in months, the police said on Saturday.
Al Shabab, a Qaeda-linked organization, have been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed federal government in Somalia for more than 17 years and have previously targeted the beach area, Lido, which is popular with businesspeople and officials.
“More than 32 civilians died in this attack, and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically,” Abdifatah Adan Hassan, a police spokesman, said at a news conference.
The assault, for which Al Shabab claimed responsibility in an online post, began late Friday when the suicide bomber detonated a device and gunmen stormed the area, the police and witnesses said.
A police officer, Mohamed Omar, said the attackers had “shot civilians randomly.”
He said that security forces had ended the attack and killed the gunmen.
Al Shabab have claimed numerous bombings and attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia as the government presses an offensive against the militants.
The Lido area has been the target of several previous attacks, including a six-hour siege by Al Shabab of a beachside hotel in 2023, which left six civilians dead and 10 wounded. Five people were killed in a powerful car bomb blast at a cafe in the capital last month. And in March, the militants killed three people and wounded 27 in an hourslong siege of another Mogadishu hotel, breaking a relative lull in the fighting.
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