Four Somali soldiers killed

A suicide bomber dressed in a military uniform triggered his explosives at Somalia's army headquarters on Wednesday, killing four soldiers, officials said. General Abdikarim Yusuf Dhagabadan, the chief of Somalia's armed forces, said he believed the bomber was targeting him for assassination as he was arriving for work. Dhagabadan said four soldiers died and 12 others were wounded, four seriously.
Al Qaida-linked militants with al-Shabab have carried out several suicide bomb attacks in Mogadishu. One soldier at the scene of the attack who gave his name only as Ali said the bomber feigned a stomachache outside the military headquarters in order to attract soldiers to him.
Dhagabadan said Somali forces opened fire on the bomber, killing him. "A man walked toward me, then an armed soldier confronted him and ordered him to stop after which he turned around, took off his cap and turned toward the staff before he exploded," said Dhagabadan, who admitted that Somali soldiers were caught off guard.
Somalia's government on Wednesday condemned a string of attacks and explosions in Mogadishu. The government said four recent bomb attacks excluding Wednesday's bombing have killed five people. One bomb was planted near a secondary school, another near a university. A bomb even went off in a Mogadishu hospital, wounding two people.