Somalis, militants die in UN office attack

Mogadishu, Somalia: Al Qaida-linked militants detonated multiple bomb blasts and breached the main UN compound in Mogadishu on Wednesday, sparking gun battles with security forces that killed at least 12 people. UN personnel who reached the compound’s secure bunker all survived, though officials hinted not all reached that bunker.

An ambulance driver said that five Somali civilians were killed and an Associated Press reporter who went inside the UN compound after the battle saw two dead bodies of what appeared to be Al Shabab attackers wearing Somali military uniforms. An official said seven attackers died in total.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “shocked” at the news of the attack, his spokesman said.

“The Secretary-General is aware of the attack against the United Nations in Somalia, and he is shocked by it,” Martin Nesirky, the spokesman, said in an email. “He is being updated regularly as we get more information from Mogadishu and UN Headquarters in New York.”

Ben Parker, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, said that a first explosion was detonated at 11.30am and that at least two others followed. Dozens of staff from UN humanitarian and development agencies were in the compound and many moved to a secure bunker, he said.

African Union and Somali security forces responded and took control of the compound about an hour later. The UN staff who sought refuge in the bunker were then evacuated to the secure military base and airport complex across the street, Parker said.

“There is a provision there for a secure area within that compound and that wasn’t breached,” Parker said.

Parker was then asked if that meant all UN people survived: “Assuming that people got to the safe area,” he said. “There was not very much time to get into the safe area.”

A second UN official who could not be named because he is not an official spokesman indicated an announcement of UN casualties was upcoming. A third UN official said he believed four UN workers were killed, including one Kenyan, one Somali and two South Africans. The official said seven attackers died.

Several UN guards were believed to have also been wounded, or worse. Both UN officials insisted on anonymity because they are not official spokesmen.

Mohammad Ali, an ambulance driver, said he transported five dead civilian bodies and 10 people who were wounded.

Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said he was appalled that “our friends and partners” at the UN who are carrying out humanitarian activities would be the victims “of such barbaric violence.” An African Union official, Mahamet Saleh Annadif, condemned the “cowardly” attack and sent condolences “to those who had lost loved ones.”

The UN has had only a small presence in Mogadishu in recent years, due to the dangers of operating in a city controlled by Al Shabab militants. In December, though, Ban Ki-moon touched down in Mogadishu wearing a bullet proof jacket to announce a return of the UN’s political office to the seaside capital.

That security measure was necessary because of Al Shabab, the Al Qaida-linked militant group. Al Shabab said on its Twitter feed shortly after Wednesday’s attack that its fighters “are now in control of the entire compound and the battle is still ongoing”.

Al Shabab said that members of its martyrdom brigade were carrying out the attack.

An AP reporter at the scene said one of the three blasts included a car bomb that largely pulled off the compound’s front gate. Bullet marks could be seen on the inside walls.

The compound under attack lies just across the street from the secure airport complex, where African Union military forces are based.