At least 10 people have been confirmed dead following an attack by Al Shabaab gunmen and a suicide bomber in central Somalia.
The attack was carried out early Monday morning at a religious center with one cleric and nine others killed during the attack.
Reuters reports that Police Major Abdirahman Abdullahi said that the militants killed 10 people including the cleric, teenagers and women who lived inside the camp.
Security forces have been deployed to the centre to fight off the attackers.
Fighting between security forces and al Shabaab still goes in the centre, the toll may rise,” Abdullahi said.
The Islamic militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“A car bomb rammed into the centre of the man who insulted the prophet. Our militants are now inside and fighting goes on,” Al Shabaab spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters.
Residents of Galkayo and a regional official said Abdiweli may have also been targeted because his centre hosts mostly youths who play music and dance.
Al Shabaab said last year the cleric had referred to himself as the Prophet, an accusation denied at the time by Abdiweli.
“We cannot know the figure of casualties right now. Al Shabaab had threatened him many times,” Abdirashid Hashi, the governor of Mudug region, told Reuters.
Al Shabaab is fighting to establish its own rule based on its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. The group controls small sections on Mudug region, but it does not include Galkayo.
CGTN