Suicide bomber kills governor in Somalia’s Puntland region

NAIROBI, Kenya – A Somali police officer says a suicide bomber driving explosives-laden motorized cycle-taxi killed a regional governor in central Somalia.

Mumin Abdi, the police chief of Galkayo town in Somalia’s central Mudug region, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the bomber rammed a vehicle carrying Ahmed Muse Nur, the governor of Mudug region, killing him and three of his bodyguards outside the regional administration’s headquarters.

Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing. The group, which is allied to al-Qaida, said they carried out the bombing in an announcement on their radio broadcast.

Nur, a prominent local politician in his 70s was appointed government in the middle of last year. He is the second governor killed in recent months in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in northeastern Somalia.

A suicide bomber killed the governor of Puntland’s Nugal region in March. Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni condemned the latest attack as “heinous.”