Suicide bomber Somali teen
2009-06-23 22:20
-
Gifts
A novel by one of the finest contemporary African writers
Was R180.00
Now R153.00
buy now
Nairobi - The suicide bomber who blew himself up and killed 19 other people in western Somalia last week was a 17-year-old Somali, the hardline Islamist Shebab group that claimed the attack said on Tuesday.
The bomber was Mohamed Sheikh Derow Aden, a teenager from the south-central region of Bakol, said the Shebab's information service on its website.
The website carried pictures of the teenager laughing and training with a rifle as well as quotations from the Qu'ran.
The victims of the June 18 suicide attack - a method that the Shebab have used relatively rarely - included Somalia's Security Minister, Omar Hashi Aden.
Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke had said after the attack in the western town of Beledweyne that it could only have been carried out by one of the hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters currently in Somalia.
The Shebab and allied insurgent groups have spearheaded an unprecedented six-week-old military offensive against the internationally-backed administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
The Shebab, which has adopted al-Qaeda's ideology, has carried out several suicide bombings in the past, mostly against Ethiopian troops that had occupied Somalia between late 2006 and January this year.
Out of the around 10 Somali suicide attacks that have rocked the country over the past three years, at least two were carried out by men identified as Kenyan.
- SAPA