{"id":70871,"date":"2014-12-03T12:36:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T12:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=70871"},"modified":"2014-12-03T12:37:19","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T12:37:19","slug":"somali-bomb-explodes-near-un-convoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=70871","title":{"rendered":"Somali bomb explodes near UN convoy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\" class=\"introduction\">At least four people have been killed in a car bomb blast next to a UN convoy in Somalia&#8217;s capital, police say.<\/p>\n<p>The bomb exploded as the convoy travelled along the road near the airport in Mogadishu, police said.<\/p>\n<p>A second blast targeted African Union (AU) troops about 25km (15 miles) from the city, but details are sketchy, a BBC reporter says.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Shabab, linked to al-Qaeda, has often carried out attacks in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, it killed 36 quarry workers near the northern Kenyan town of Mandera.<\/p>\n<p>It has not commented on the latest explosions.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"cross-head\">&#8216;Smoke all around&#8217;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The United Nations and the British and Italian embassy compounds are based near Mogadishu&#8217;s heavily fortified airport.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/79477000\/jpg\/_79477883_79477882.jpg\" alt=\"Somali security forces rush to the site of a blast near the heavily fortified gates of the airport in Mogadishu on 3 December 2014\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">Rescue workers battled to extinguish the flames<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/79477000\/jpg\/_79477887_79477886.jpg\" alt=\"A foreign security officer inspects wreckage at the scene of a car bomb attack that targeted a United Nations convoy, outside the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia on 3 December 2014\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">Foreign security personnel were at the site of the blast<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The explosion was very big and there is smoke all around the area. I can hardly see people lying on the ground, either dead or wounded,&#8221; witness Shamso Idle told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>Police said at least four people, including a Somali intelligence officer, were killed and about 10 others were wounded in the blast, reports the BBC&#8217;s Mohamed Moalimu from Mogadishu.<\/p>\n<p>The UN has not reported any casualties among its staff.<\/p>\n<p>Its security personnel were at the site, inspecting the wreckage, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n<p>The explosion targeting AU troops took place in Lafole village, south of Mogadishu, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n<p>The AU has some 22,000 troops helping the weak and divided Somali government battle al-Shabab.<\/p>\n<p>The UN has no troops in Somalia, and says it staff are involved in political activities aimed at helping the government achieve stability.<\/p>\n<p>Various armed groups have been battling for control of Somalia since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least four people have been killed in a car bomb blast next to a UN convoy in Somalia&#8217;s capital, police say. The bomb exploded as the convoy travelled along the road near the airport in Mogadishu, police said. A second blast targeted African Union (AU) troops about 25km (15 miles) from the city, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":70875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-70871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}