Former defence minister killed in car bomb in Mogadishu

Former Somali defense minister Muhidin Mohamed Haji was killed in a car blast in Somali capital Mogadishu, police said Monday.

A police officer at the scene said the bomb had been planted underneath the car of Muhidin Mohamed Haji Ibrahim.

The blast occurred in Mogadishu’s KM4 neighborhood.

Al-Shabab told Reuters it planted the car bomb that killed Muhidin Mohamed.

“We are behind his killing,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

Mohamed was born in 1954 in Mogadishu and attained his primary and secondary education in Mogadishu.

He has equally made significant contribution in ministry for information during the reign of late Mohamed Siayad Bare after attained his degree in Mass communication from Somali National University.

Mohamad Haji served under the Transitional Federal Government led late president Abdullahi Yussuf in 2008.

During this time, Mohamed briefly served as defence minister in Somalia’s transitional federal government, which was backed by United Nations.

Until his death, Haji worked as an adviser for the Somali Federal parliament.