Two killed in Somalia bomb targeting regional leader

MOGADISHU — A roadside bomb targeting a state leader’s convoy killed two people and wounded three others in north-eastern Somalia on Monday, police and witnesses said.

The president of the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, Said Abdullahi Deni, was travelling to the region’s commercial capital Bosaso when a powerful explosive planted on the road ripped through one of the military vehicles escorting him.

Deni was unhurt in the attack, which was claimed by the Al Shabaab extremist group, police said.

“The president is unharmed and well, his convoy proceeded with the movement after the blast,” police officer Abdihakin Ali told AFP.

The blast is the latest in a spate of attacks in the troubled Horn of Africa nation as it hobbles through a much-delayed election process.

A suicide bomber targeted a popular restaurant in the central Somali town of Beledweyne on Saturday, killing 14 people, including local government officials.

On the same day, one person was killed and six others injured when an explosive device went off in a teashop in Bosaso.

Analysts worry that long-running disagreements over the overdue elections have distracted the government from its fight against Al Shabaab.

The Islamist group had vowed “it would attack the elections and now are doing just that”, in a bid to undermine the authority of the fragile government, said Omar Mahmood, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“They view both the government and elections as illegitimate,” Mahmood told AFP.

The Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group was driven out of the capital Mogadishu in 2011 after an offensive by an African Union force, but still control vast swathes of rural Somalia from where they launch regular attacks.