Via LWJ:
Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, carried out a complex suicide assault against the presidential compound in a highly secured area of Mogadishu, Somalia today. Several government officials are reported to have been killed during the assault.
A suicide assault team estimated at 10 men strong launched the attack today as officials were praying at a mosque inside the compound. The heavily armed fighters, who were traveling in three cars and dressed in uniforms worn by guards at the presidential palace, were able to talk their way past the outer perimeter of security.
One of the cars was rigged as a suicide bomb, which was rammed into a wall inside the compound. The other fighters dismounted their cars and engaged Somali troops.
“All the Shabaab fighters perished, some blew up themselves while others were shot dead. Several government guards also died,” a senior police official told Reuters.
Several Somali soldiers are reported to have been killed. Other officials said that the secretary of the prime minister’s office as well as the former National Intelligence and Security Agency chief were killed in the fighting, Garowe reported.