MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali police said they had foiled a suicide attack by Islamist rebels on the seaport in the capital Mogadishu on Saturday, two days after a bomb attack on the city’s airport.
Abdullahi Abdi, a police officer based at the port, said the driver of a petrol tanker was forced by a gunman to speed through a checkpoint at the port’s entrance and government troops opened fire.
He said the security forces blew out the tanker’s tires before arresting the wounded driver and the gunman who was found with explosives in a black bag.
“This was a clear potential suicide attack. He wanted to ram the tanker into the seaport and blow his explosives, Abdi told Reuters. A porter at the port confirmed the incident.
The petrol truck was reported to be empty at the time of the attack.
Police said the driver told them his truck was hijacked as he drove toward the port, a crucial entry point for food and fuel into Somalia.
On Thursday, al Shabaab rebels killed two African Union peacekeepers and at least three civilians outside the city’s airport in a suicide attack, amid government warnings the militants could launch a spectacular attack to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The rebels have used suicide bombers to devastating effect over the past two years, killing five government ministers and dozens of AU peacekeeping troops. Al Shabaab was also behind attacks in Uganda in July that killed at least 79 people.
About 7,200 AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi are deployed in Mogadishu and focus on guarding the airport and seaport and shielding President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed from the militants.
(Reporting by Abdi Guled; Editing by Richard Lough)
An American jihadist killed in Somalia
By Dana Huges, Kirit and Jason Ryan, ABC News
An American member of an al Qaeda-connected terror group has been killed in fighting in Somalia, according to intelligence and government officials there. The fighter, a Somali-American man known as Dahir Gurey Sheikh Ali Guled, was found dead in Mogadishu after a street battle between the militant group, Al Shabab, and pro-government forces.
A US official told ABC News that Gurey was believed to be an American citizen who arrived in Somalia earlier this year, but cautioned that the US government has not independently confirmed Mr. Gurey’s death or nationality. Somali officials said the man had documents on him that indicated he was American.
If Gurey is determined to be an American, he would be the latest in an increasing number of young Somali-Americans who have migrated to Somalia for jihad. In 2008, a Somali-American suicide bomber attacked African Union forces in Puntland, Northern Somalia and last September another Somali-American suicide bomber attacked the African Union headquarters in Mogadishu. The highest profile American fighting for Al Shabab is Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who is known as Al Amriki. Hammami, an Alabama native, is in the top ranks of the terror organization.
The last month has seen intense fighting as Al Shabab launched its “Ramadan Offensive”. The Somali transitional government called Gurey an Al Shabab commander, though he had apparently only been in the country for several months. American counterterrorism officials estimate that eight to 12 US citizens have been killed in fighting in Somalia since 2006.
American citizens began turning up in Somalia ready to fight in late 2006; the number sharply increased in 2007, when as many as 20 young men from the Minneapolis area traveled to the area to join Al Shabab.
The flow of Americans into Somalia’s war received increased scrutiny from FBI and DHS officials after a Minnesota man, Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia, blew himself up in a suicide bombing in northern Somalia Oct. 28, 2008 in an attack that targeted an African Union intelligence post, according to US officials.
