MOGADISHU: Twelve security agents were killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb planted outside a Somali town where political leaders had been meeting to try to resolve a row over a presidential selection process due to be held on Monday.

Islamist militant group Al Shabaab, which analysts say is keen on exploiting the deadlock, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Those killed included Abdirashid Abdunur, the head of the National Intelligence and Security Agency in Dhusamareb, police officer Mohamed Ahmed said. In all, 12 people from the agency were killed in the attack near the town, police said.

A deal on how to choose a new president on Monday has been elusive so far, threatening to unleash more political turmoil.The explosion tore through a military vehicle just outside Dhusamareb, a district in central Somalia some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.

“We believe their vehicle hit a landmine planted by the terrorists just outside Dhusamareb,” said Mohamed Ali, a military officer in Dhusamareb, district.

“The blast ripped through the vehicle and killed most of those onboard. One or two soldiers survived with serious injuries,” he said.

The militants have been waging a violent insurgency across the Horn of Africa country seeking to unseat the internationally backed government in Mogadishu.

They were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 but still control swathes of territory from where they plan and launch frequent, deadly strikes against government and civilian targets.

Military officials on Friday said several mortar rounds were fired at Dhusamareb town where Somalia’s president and regional leaders were meeting to try and agree a plan for delayed elections.

There were no reports of injuries in the attack, which officials blamed on Al Shabaab.

At least five people, including a prominent former general, were killed in attack on a Mogadishu hotel on January 31 by the Al Qaeda-linked jihadists.Somalia had initially aimed to hold its first direct election in more than three decades but delays in preparations, and the government’s inability to rein in daily attacks by Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab insurgents, meant switching to an indirect vote, with elders picking lawmakers who would choose a president.

However, regional authorities in at least two of Somalia’s five federal states, Puntland and Jubbaland, oppose holding the election for now.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2021