Somali forces arrest seven al-Shabab militants in Mogadishu

Somali security forces said Tuesday they have arrested seven al-Shabab terrorists who had earlier hurled grenades on several police stations in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

Abdifitah Aden Hassan, a police spokesman, told the State-run Radio Mogadishu that al-Shabab militants attacked Wadajir, Hodan, Hawl-wadaag and Bondhere police stations in Mogadishu with grenades but the police pursued them and arrested seven during the operation.

There was no immediate comment from the extremist group on the latest arrest of their fighters in the restive city.

The latest grenade attack comes about a week after al-Shabab militants attacked several police stations in Mogadishu, killing two people and injuring 16 others. The latest attack in Mogadishu came a few hours after a renowned religious scholar Sheikh Abinasir Haji was killed in a car bombing in the southern city of Kismayo.

Haji was killed in a bomb attack in Kismayo town by an improvised explosive device that had been fixed on his car.

President Mohamed Farmajo has sent his condolence message to the family and relatives of the deceased who was in the southern region to preach his peace gospel.

The militant group has stepped up terror attacks across the country despite the allied forces having mounted security surveillance amid the ongoing elections in the country.