Suicide bomb kills top Somali footballer, wounds two

Abdi Salaan Mohamed Ali, one of Somalia’s top football players has been killed in suicide explosions while returning from a training session near the Somali police academy this morning (Monday).
Two other football players Mahmoud Amin Mohamed and Siid Ali Mohamed Xiis were wounded in the attack, according to a statement from the Somali Football Federation.
Witnesses said that two suicide explosions occurred on a highway leading to the Somali police academy where the footballers had performed their early morning training session. “They were walking on the road,” Farhiya Mohamed who witnessed the explosions said.
The brutal incident has shocked the president of Somali Football Federation Mr. Said Mahmoud Nur who is currently in Khartoum for the CAF congress. “I am deeply shocked by the sad news of the death and injury of our young footballers,” the president said in a statement issued this afternoon.
“On behalf of the entire Somali football family I am sending my heart-felt condolence to the families, relatives and friends of the slain football player Abdi Salaan Mohamed Ali. He was one of our best players and has recently been added to the national U-20 squad,” the president said in his statement sent to the local and international media by the Somali Football Federation media department.
A condolence book has been opened at the Somali Football Federation headquarters in Mogadishu where thousands have registered since the sad news came to light earlier in the day.
“We are committed to continuing our duty in the war-torn country until we meet death,” the president said today.
In the past four years the Somali Football family has lost more than a dozen football players and top level officials including international football referee Abdi Abdulahi Alasow and executive committee member Ali Hussein Kariye.

**AIPS