Somalia: Govt Soldier Shot Dead in Afgoye

[Deeq A.]

Unidentified gunmen have on Tuesday morning shot dead a government soldier in Afgoye district of Lower Shabelle region, 30KM south of Mogadishu.

The victim, whose name has not been released yet, was gunned down by young men armed with pistols in the Lower Shabelle town, a witness said.

The killers fled from the crime scene. Added the witness.

Security officers have immediately reached at the scene to carry out investigations at the vicinity though the assailants disappeared.

The movements of public vehicles and business activities in the area were halted down for a while for further investigations by the security forces.

The motive of the attack was not immediately clear but similar incidents have been reported in the town in the past.

No arrests have been made over the assassination.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Al-Shabaab militants are often behind such attacks in the town and across the Horn of Africa nation.

The attack comes just a day after the governor of Mudug region Ahmed Muse Nur alongside with his three bodyguards were killed in a suicide bombing in Galkacyo town, the headquarters of Mudug region in an attack claimed by the Al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabaab.

The group was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

However, it still carries out frequent attacks across Somalia, as well as in neighboring Kenya, whose soldiers form part of African Union-mandated peacekeeping forces that help defend the Somali government.

 

 

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