Al-Shabab fighters of Somalia fired mortars at Mogadishu’s airport. The attack was aimed at the Somali president who arrived from his tour to Yemen. At least 5 people have been killed and a dozen injured.

Witnesses reported that mortars were fired towards the airport aimed at Sharif Ahmed the president of Somalia. He was landing on the airport at that time the firing started. Police reported that the president was unharmed but around five people were killed and around 11 people were injured in firing and counter fire.

A similar attack was seen last week when the President was leaving the capital. Heavy gun fire took place in return and around 24 people were killed. Somalia’s capital faces daily based violence as the anti-government groups fight with the US backed government. The groups which include Al-Shabab and other allied forces want to topple the US backed government and create their own government.

Somalia’s prime minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke claimed that Al-Qaeda was behind the training. planning and grouping of this anti-government organizations. He said “Somalia has now clearly become a haven for the pariah that is al-Qaeda, We cannot be certain of the precise size of their presence in our country, but al-Qaeda are here, they are training and planning in our land.

“Somalia is serving as an ideal place for them to re-group and redeploy”.

He also said that defeating these groups is very important for Somalia as well as for the whole world. He continued that Al-Shabab and the allied forces control major parts of the nation and they are backed by the Al-qaeda so defeating them is very important for everyone.

He said “Somalia does risk being taken over by Al-Qaeda, just as Afghanistan was the haven of Al-Qaeda in the 1990s, An insurgency needs chaos, discontent and poverty and we must take that away”.

Sharmake is along with Ahmed who leads Western-backed transitional government in Somalia. They had taken over the area but are facing a new challenge from the ongoing campaign of Al-Shabab.