Somalia Arrests Officers for Allegedly Coordinating Suicide Bombing

Somalia's officer Hussein Farah stated on Wednesday that authorities have arrested a number of army officers on suspicion of assisting a suicide bomber in entering a military academy in the capital, Mogadishu, this week. The Al-Shabaab militant group, linked to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred at the Galad Sayyid Military Academy. The assault is one of the largest executed by the group in years against a military target in Mogadishu. Farah told Reuters that authorities arrested Colonel Abdullah Dabo, an officer from the infantry operations, and charged him with bringing the suicide bomber into the academy in his vehicle. He added that other officers were also detained in connection with the same attack, but he did not disclose their names. Many Somalis have long suspected that elements of the militant group Al-Shabaab have infiltrated some circles of the government and military, but arrests were rare until recently.