Somalis foil attack after bomb goes off

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali security forces shot dead three extremists wearing soldiers’ uniforms, foiling an attempted al-Shabab attack on the presidential palace that began with a car bomb exploding, police said Saturday.

The confrontation came a week after an attack on the nearby Interior Ministry compound in Mogadishu killed at least nine people, again raising questions about the state of security in the most sensitive areas of Somalia’s capital.

Six people were dead in all, including a suicide car bomber, Capt. Mohamed Hussein said, adding that the situation had calmed and security in the area was being tightened.

The midday attack began when a car bomb detonated near a checkpoint close to the presidential palace after security forces engaged with gunmen. A second car bomb exploded in the same area shortly afterward, Hussein said.

“There were skirmishes between security forces and the attackers and then we had a big blast and a huge boom. The blast knocked me down,” said witness Osman Ali.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group, an arm of al-Qaida, often targets high-profile places in the capital. It claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, saying its fighters were conducting a “major operation” around the palace and nearby SYL Hotel.

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