Explosion rocks Jalle Siyaad military academy in Mogadishu
According to local media, the local terrorist group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, whose casualties are yet to be declared.
Jaalle Siyaad Military Academy, a cadet training school previously owned by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), has been struck by an explosion following a suicide bombing on Wednesday.
According to local media, the local terrorist group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, whose casualties are yet to be declared.
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"A powerful explosion has struck in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. The attack was reportedly carried out by a suicide bomber. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility, saying it targeted Western military officers visiting the facility," the Somali Guardian said moments ago.
The facility that had been occupied by AMISOM troops for over a decade before it was handed over to the Somali Government in 2019 had been targeted by the militia group several times in the past, including one in November 2023 when a suspected suicide bomber was killed before his explosives could detonate as he approached the facility.
The incident happened months after another suicide bomber killed multiple soldiers at the facility in July of that same year, raising questions about how the attacker gained access to one of the reportedly most guarded facilities in the capital.
The facility that had been under AMISOM troops since 2008 served as a key operations base for the African Union troops at the height of the war against Al-Shabaab militants and as a Forward Operating Base from which the troops waged a fierce war against the militants, leading to the liberation of Mogadishu in 2011.
It was handed over as part of the framework of the Somalia Transition Plan and the United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which called for a gradual and conditions-based transfer of Somalia's security responsibilities to the Somali security forces.
The incident happened two days after Al-Shabaab militants attacked Moqokori, roughly 300 kilometres north of the capital, Mogadishu, with vehicles reportedly loaded with explosives and fighters.
Moqokori is strategically located as a gateway to several other major towns in the central Hiraan region. The town has long been contested, with Al-Shabaab seizing it in 2016 and last holding it briefly in 2018.
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