“Hardline Islamist insurgents have plans to attack the Somali capital’s seaport with vessels packed full of explosives, African Union peacekeepers and moderate Islamists said Friday. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab fighters are waging a deadly insurgency against the fragile Western-backed government, intent on imposing a harsher version of Sharia law throughout the impoverished nation.

‘We have information that al Shabaab want to use a boat laden with explosives to attack the seaport,’ Major Barigye Ba-hoku, spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), told Reuters.

“A suspected pirate has been shot dead as private guards repelled an attack on a cargo ship off Somalia, in what may have been the first such incident.

The EU naval force (Navfor) says the suspect was found dead by a team from an EU warship which was responding to a distress call from the cargo ship.

Guards aboard the Panamanian-flagged MV Almezaan had returned fire after the ship was attacked, it added.

“The French navy has captured 35 piracy suspects off Somalia’s coast – hailing it as the most successful mission since EU operations began in 2008.

French officials said four mother ships and six smaller boats had been seized in four operations since last Friday.

EU forces used helicopters and fired warning shots to capture the pirates, France’s defence ministry said.

The EU launched its anti-piracy mission in December 2008, but the pirates have since attacked ships in a wider area.

“A top Somali defense official survived an attack Monday by an Islamist suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden vehicle in the capital of Mogadishu, the official said. At least one bystander was killed.

The attack against State Defense Minister Yusuf Mohamed Siyad — known by his nickname Indahaadde or ‘White Eyes’ — comes as the besieged U.N.-backed government is preparing to launch an offensive against Islamist insurgents who have links to al-Qaida.

Siyad said the bomber’s vehicle chased his car but exploded before colliding with it because a civilian minibus unexpectedly came between the two. Two bodyguards in a car driving behind the minister were wounded, Siyad said.

“Somalia’s hardline al Shabaab rebels denied Friday they had threatened to attack Kenya following a crackdown on Somalis in its capital Nairobi, and said a recording posted on the internet was a fake.

Renewed fears over the insurgents’ links with Yemen and al Qaeda, and an attack on the home of a Danish cartoonist by an axe-wielding Somali man with reported ties to al Shabaab, have focussed attention on the militant group.