The Somali capital Mogadishu has been hit by its worst violence this year with at least 19 people killed in two separate terrorist attacks.
Al-Shabab militants detonated a car bomb outside the law courts as gunmen stormed the compound. Later, another bomb was set off near an African Union and Turkish Red Crescent convoy on its way to the airport.
Government soldiers had to lay siege to the law courts after an estimated seven well-armed men seized control and swept through the building, killing anyone in sight. At least three of them detonated explosive vests during the gunbattle, which lasted several hours.
Although al-Shabab has been expelled from most of Somalia’s major cities and towns, it still controls much of the countryside. British intelligence warned last week terrorists were “in the final stages” of planning an attack on the city.
