Police Chief killed, two security guards hurt in Mogadishu attack
By Omar Nor
MOGADISHU (Somalilandsun)— Unidentified gunmen have shot and killed a senior Somali police officer in Mogadishu, the latest in string of assassinations against government officials in the
war-battered Oceanside capital, reports said.
Eyewitnesses said Khalif Mohamed Ali, the head of Mogadishu’s Kahda district police was killed after armed groups attacked his convoy on Wednesday night near his home.
“A brief gun-battle ensued between the security guards and the gunmen that led to the death of the commander,” said a resident.
Abdiweli Yusuf Omar, Kahda district commissioner confirmed the report of the commander’s death to the local media in Mogadishu, adding that two security guards were wounded in the attack. The motive and the identity of the attackers are yet unclear.
Meanwhile, the assailants managed to escape unharmed from the crime site shortly after carrying out the murder, sources said. Security forces reached at the scene and launched a manhunt operation, but no one has been arrested for the killing.
No group immediate claim of responsibility, but Al Shabaab militants have kept up guerrilla-style attacks against UN-backed Somali government and the AU forces in the unstable city.
Last week, Aug 21, a Swedish woman was injured and her translator was killed while she was going back to her hotel after giving a speech at a University when the gunmen struck a car near the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu in what police believe may have been “an attempted kidnap”.
The writer Omar Nor,is a freelance journalist based in Mogadishu
Contact: Omaarnur@Gmail.com
