At least nine people were killed in a coordinated string of al-Shabaab terrorist attacks in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Wednesday.
Residents reported hearing a wave of powerful explosions that began shortly before midnight on Tuesday in the city's south-east, followed by hours of gunfire with automatic weapons and shelling with mortar rounds.
"What we saw last night in Mogadishu shows that the terrorist group al-Shabaab is still a potential threat to peace there after its military ejection from the capital in 2011," former intelligence chief Ahmed Fiki told dpa.
The attackers briefly took control of a police station in the city, according to a police spokesperson. Numerous buildings were destroyed in the violence.
"Our home collapsed completely because of the blast and we have lost an elderly brother," father-of-three Mohamud Ibrahim told dpa.
Two children have been confirmed among the dead.
According to the police, the attackers overran various checkpoints in order to enter Mogadishu. Car bombs were also used.
The hunt for the attackers is still ongoing, a police spokesman said early Wednesday.
Speaking via its mouthpiece Radio Andalus, the terrorist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the multipronged attack, considered one of the worst in recent years.
Al-Shabaab claimed to have killed numerous soldiers and police officers. It also purportedly captured military equipment.
Somalia has been plagued by repeated attacks on security forces and civilians for years now. Al-Shabaab control large parts of the country's southern and central regions.
The latest attack is unusual, however, because al-Shabaab normally targets the capital with lone suicide bombers.
