Baku-APA. Suicide bombers attack the UN's office in Mogadishu on Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people dead, including eight working for the UN, an official said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
Somali Interior Minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled told reporters that eight people including four foreigners working for the United Nations Development Programe (UNDP) office in Mogadishu were killed in the attack.
Minister Guled said that seven of the attackers were also killed. Witnesses and medics said that nearly 13 civilians were injured.
The Al Qaida linked militant Al-Shabaab group said it was behind the assault on the UN office in Mogadishu.
The attackers used suicide car bomb which was detonated at the gate of the UNDP compound before heavily armed fighters in military uniforms entered the building and exchanged gunfire with guards inside the premises.
The one-hour long fight ended after Somali security forces and soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) arrived and following intense gunfight and further explosions the compound was under the Somali government control.
Somali government on Wednesday deplored the deadly attack on the office of the UNDP in Mogadishu.
The Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said attack which targeted United Nations Common Compound in Mogadishu was "despicable".
"I condemn this senseless and despicable attack on innocent UN civilians this morning. The UN are our friends and partners, and the UN agencies offer us humanitarian help and support," Prime Minister Shirdon said.
AMISOM said the attacks were "futile" and were aimed at disrupting the ongoing efforts by Somalis to recover years of violence in the horn of Africa nation.
"We strongly condemn the cowardly attack on the United Nations compound in Mogadishu. (The attacks) will not deter our collective efforts to continue supporting the people of Somalia rebuild their country," Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed shock at the attacks on the office of the world body in Mogadishu.
The attack comes at time when the new UN mission for Somalia known as UNSOM have taken over from the previous mission whose mandate ended in June.
The radical group has previously banned UN aid agencies from operating in areas under their control accusing the agency of carrying out anti-Islam activities a charge vehemently denied by the world body.
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