Monday, November 10, 2014
MOGADISHU (Xinhua) -- A Somali journalist was seriously injured in Mogadishu Sunday evening after an explosive device planted inside his car went off.
Nuurre Mohamed Ali, the journalist, lost his right leg in the explosion. The bomb was believed to have been attached to his car's driver seat with magnetic devices.
"The explosion was very heavy. He was driving the car and it exploded from the seat," said Mayow, Ali's friend who rushed him to hospital. "Now he is out of the operation room, and he is in the intensive care unit."
Local operation commander Colonel Hassan Halane, who reached the place of the explosion, told Xinhua that the device attached to the journalist's car seemed sophisticated and might have been planted by Al-Shabaab.
"We don't have a reason behind the attack of this junior journalist yet, but we'll investigate and release it," said the commander.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemned the attack, and requested the Somalia government to investigate transparently and bring the perpetrators to justice.
"It is the latest attack in a series of attacks against the journalists and the media in Somalia. NUSOJ condemns it," said NUSOJ Secretary General Mohamed Ibrahim Bakistaan.
Ali became the third journalist attacked and seriously wounded in Mogadishu in the past month. On Oct. 12, unknown gunmen opened fire at journalist Abdirisak Jama Elmi, the bureau chief of Somali Channel Television's Mogadishu office, in his residence.
And on Oct 13, another journalist was seriously wounded after a car bomb detonated at a restaurant in Hamarweyne area in Mogadishu.