Targeting African Union and Somali commanders, Shabaab launched a complex assault on a hotel in Bulo Barde, killing at least six soldiers, including Col. Mohamud Amin, the Somali commander for Hiran. The attack began with a suicide car bombing. Attackers dressed in military uniforms reportedly killed 25 people, including Bulo Barde mayor Abdulkadir Nour and former Hiraan governor Yusuf Ahmed Hagar, as well as Col. Amin and his deputy. A suicide car bomb hit an AMISOM convoy outside Mogadishu. Shabaab forces ambushed a Puntland Defense forces commander near Bossaso, killing him and one bodyguard and wounding another. Security forces recently arrested “dozens” of Koran teachers in Mogadishu on charges of indoctrinating for Shabaab.
