Johannesburg (People’s Daily) – A member of the terrorist group al-Shabab killed 18 police officers and wounded others after he entered a police academy and blew himself up in Mogadishu, the capital city Somalia.

According to local police reports, on Thursday morning a man dressed in a police uniform entered the academy unnoticed wearing a self-detonating suicide vest.

On a pro-al-Shabab website, it read, “It was martyrdom operation, in which the mujahedeen targeted the police academy camp.”

The terrorist group is an al-Queda ally. The attack marks a war that’s been going on between al-Shabab and the Somalian government for ten years.

Once based in Mogadishu, al-Shabab was driven out in August 2011, losing its main stronghold. But they still control rural areas and carry out guerrilla attacks against military bases in the capital.

According to witnesses, the attacker blew himself up just as police were gathering in the public yard in the morning.

According to the local police commander, the death toll could have been heavier if the suicide bomber had reached the center of the yard, where there were more people.

Police Chief General Muktar Hussein Afrah confirmed the death toll of 18 killed and 15 wounded.

Al-Shabab has become an erratic force in Somalia. The group has recently targeted US forces inspired by US President Trump’s drone campaign in the region.