Fighters from the terrorist group Al-Shabaab attacked the Somali capital of Mogadishu and killed 10 civilians. Agence France-Presse reported this on Wednesday, citing a statement from the Somali government.
"The militants have started attacking residential buildings after defeats in battles with the government army," the agency quoted the statement as saying.
The Al-Shabaab group was established in Somalia in 2004 and has carried out attacks since 2008. By 2010 it controlled vast territories, but in the summer of 2011 it was forced to leave the Somali capital and switch to guerrilla tactics against the government and its allies. In February 2012, one of the group's leaders announced that the fighters had joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist network (banned in the Russian Federation). The total number of Al-Shabaab fighters, according to various estimates, is up to 10,000.
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Photo: Master Sgt. Christopher DeWitt/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS