MOGADISHU – Unidentified gunmen fired on worshippers at two mosques in Somalia’s self-proclaimed state of Puntland, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, residents and security officials said on Sunday. Residents believe the attacks targeted mosques run by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels, blamed for a roadside bombing a few hours before that killed a prominent cleric who was also a senior Puntland government official.
The mosque attacks on Saturday evening and Sunday morning in Galkayo killed a total of six people, prompting local authorities to order all mosques in the town to close temporarily for fear of further attacks. Somalia has been torn by civil war since 1991, and the government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only small pockets of the rubble-strewn capital Mogadishu in the south.
Puntland has been relatively peaceful compared with the rest of the Horn of Africa country but violence and instability have increased of late. The northern region is also a major base for pirates causing havoc to shipping off the Horn of Africa. “Tension is very high and now the terrorists are regrouping for battle. I am afraid all mosques will be closed for fear of fighting and explosions,” cleric Sheikh Hussein told Reuters.
“It appears to be a declaration of religious war,” Mohamed Ali Yusuf, a Puntland security official, told Reuters. “We have seized several suspects. We are conducting investigations and our forces are patrolling in the town.”
Earlier on Saturday, a prominent moderate Sufi cleric who was a senior official in Puntland’s justice and religion ministry was killed in the city after a remote controlled bomb exploded near his car, hours before the first mosque attack.
