MOGADISHU
Somali militant group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that targeted a UN office in the semi-autonomous Puntland region in northern Somalia, which left at least 10 people dead.
"We targeted our enemy, the UN. We killed many and injured many in the attack," Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab said on the group's affiliate Andalus radio station.
The spokesman claimed that among the dead were six Europeans and four Africans.
According to eyewitnesses, the explosion took place outside UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Puntland's capital Garoowe and targeted a UN bus carrying local and foreign staff.
Two Kenyans, an Afghani national and seven Somali guards were killed in the attack, the witnesses said, noting that a school bus that was next to the UN vehicle was also hit.
"I am outside the UN offices and there are bodies and blood everywhere. Ten bodies have been counted. Still many are injured," Abdel-Wahab Ali, a local official who saw the bombing, told The Anadolu Agency.
Puntland in northern Somalia has lately experienced several attacks by Al-Shabaab militant group who has moved to remote mountainous regions after they fled sustained attacks by Somali army and African Union troops in the south.
The group has vowed to target government officials as well as foreign and international organizations backing the Mogadishu government.
