Media

_A sucide bomb attack takes life of Abdiaziz Muhamud Guled, Director of Somalia's state run radio Mogadishu, on saturday evening. Two other people including his colleague, another director, Sharmarke Warsame who runs the State run Television SNTV was wounded.

 

The attack took place near City restaurant in Boondheere district, the sucide bomber targeted their vehicle, when he dotonated his explosives.

 

Somali militant group Al-Shabab claimed the responsibility for the attack. They said that it was revenge for a Shabab journalist Hasan Hanafi who was sentenced to death by a Somali military court.

 

Abdiaziz Muhamud Guled was a prominent journalist and was a critic of the Islamist militant group Al-Shabab. He presented Gungaar, which focused on countering violent extremism.

He is well known as Abdiaziz Afrika in his locality, as a national hero.

 

According to Radio Mogadishu's officially published report on its website citing police sources, the bomber detonated a device in front of a car near the restaurant wherre Guled was accompanied by Sharmarke Warsame and a driver.

 

The report also included a statement of Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussain Roble, who offered his condolences to Guled's family.

 

He said, Abdiaziz was a wery hardworking journalist and national hero who worked for his country, his people and his religion with courage and relentlessness'.

 

Abdiaziz was well known for his interviews with detained A-Shabab suspects and his broadcasts often attracted large audiences.

Al-Shabab is an exterme Islamist group in Somalia, and has been battling UN backed government forces for more than a decade.

 

The Jihadists controlled the capital Nogadishu before 2011, although it was pushed out by African Union troops, it still holds territory in the countryside and often attacks the government and civilians in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

 

Analysts at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project last year estimated that Al-Shabab had been responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 people since 2010.

 

Somalian government officials have blamed Al-Sabab for some of Somalia's deadliest terror attacks.

Reference

News Agencies