Gunmen stormed a government building in Somalia’s capital after a suicide car bombing on Saturday, killing at least five people including the country’s deputy labor minister, police said, in the latest attack by Islamic extremist fighters in the Horn of Africa nation.
Somali security forces were exchanging gunfire with at least five attackers and trying to rescue public servants trapped inside the Mogadishu building, which houses the ministries of labor and works, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said.
Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, Somalia’s deputy minister of labor and social affairs, was killed in his ground-floor office shortly after gunmen stormed the building, he said.
The death toll is expected to rise as dozens of people were believed to be inside the building at the time of the attack since Saturday is a working day in Somalia.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the ongoing attack, saying that its fighters were inside the building, which is located not far from the headquarters of the Somali intelligence agency.
As the attack unfolded, gunfire could be heard from inside the building. White smoke billowed from the scene, according to witnesses.
Al-Shabab, Africa’s most active Islamic extremist group, has been fighting for years to take power and create an Islamic state in Somalia.