police chief killed by al shabaab grenade attack

Mogadishu - A high-ranking Somali police chief and three civilians died on Saturday in a grenade attack near Mogadishu, police and witnesses said. Insurgents targeted a police station in Alamada, just south of the capital, with Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Ali Atoye perishing in the attack which also injured other colleagues. Officers opened fire in response, killing two children and a woman caught up in the vicinity, the sources said. "The police forces came under grenade attack killing a top police commander, two of his colleagues were also injured, they returned fire," said a Somali police officer speaking on condition of anonymity. "My son and another child died after the police forces opened fire on them, they were shooting in all directions," said Mohamed Kerow Aden. Local elder Dahir Ahmed said that a woman was the third victim. "She was seriously injured but died minutes later," he stated. Increased insecurity in the Horn of Africa nation is largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a deadly guerrilla war since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces early last year. Somalia has been shattered by deadly conflicts which have claimed up to half a million lives since 1991. - Sapa-AFP