{"id":28717,"date":"2016-09-19T02:48:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T02:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/somalia-general-killed-in-mogadishu-car-bomb\/"},"modified":"2016-09-19T02:47:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T02:47:59","slug":"somalia-general-killed-in-mogadishu-car-bomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/somalia-general-killed-in-mogadishu-car-bomb\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia: General killed in Mogadishu car-bomb attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Military convoy targeted in deadly suicide attack claimed by al-Shabab in Somali capital.}<\/p>\n

A Somali general and several bodyguards have been killed after their military convoy was hit by a suicide car-bomb blast that was claimed by the hard-line Al-Shabab group.<\/p>\n

General Mohamed Roble Jimale, also known as “Goobaanle”, and several Somali soldiers died in the attack in Somalia’s capital on Sunday, police colonel Abdikadir Farah told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

“There was a heavy blast caused by a car loaded with explosives alongside the industrial road, several members of the military were killed in the incident including a senior commander,” security official Abdiaziz Mohamed to AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

The general was the commander of the army’s Third Brigade. He had fought al-Shabab since 2007, leading troops who battled the fighters in several neighbourhoods of the capital until they were forced out in 2011.<\/p>\n

The attack took place after the convoy had left a military hospital and was heading towards the defence ministry. Witnesses said the vehicle was travelling on the road when another vehicle rammed it, causing a massive explosion.<\/p>\n

“The blast was very huge, I saw smoke and fire overshadowing the whole area,” said witness Abdi Hassan.<\/p>\n

The attack was claimed by al-Shabab in a statement released by its Andalus radio station.<\/p>\n

It said “a mujahid [fighter] was martyred as his suicide car bomb killed General Goobaanle”, using the general’s nickname.<\/p>\n

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud sent his condolences to the general’s family, his spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM in 2011 but has remained a potent threat in Somalia, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed government.<\/p>\n

The group is expected to try and violently disrupt elections to be held later this month and in October.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab has also staged repeated attacks in neighbouring Kenya. <\/p>\n

A recent security analysis warned the group was expanding its horizons with cells active in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Military convoy targeted in deadly suicide attack claimed by al-Shabab in Somali capital.} A Somali general and several bodyguards have been killed after their military convoy was hit by a suicide car-bomb blast that was claimed by the hard-line Al-Shabab group. General Mohamed Roble Jimale, also known as “Goobaanle”, and several Somali soldiers died in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28717"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28717"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}