At least two people have been killed and 12 others wounded after a car exploded near a checkpoint in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, officials said.
“A car bomb blast struck at a checkpoint near Daljirka, there are some casualties including members of the security forces,” security official Abdukadir Ahmed said after the attack in the south of the city on Wednesday.
Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin ambulance service, told AFP news agency two people were killed and 12 others were wounded in the blast.
Other witnesses said they had seen three killed.
“I saw the bodies of three people among them a military woman,” said witness Mohamed Saney.
“Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast and ambulances rushed to the scene to collect wounded people.”
The bombing was claimed by the armed group al-Shabab, which said in a statement it had targeted a convoy escorting officials and lawmakers heading to the presidential palace.
Al-Shabab has been fighting for more than a decade to topple the government. They fled positions they once held in Mogadishu in 2011, and have since lost many of their strongholds.
But they retain control of large rural swathes of the country, and continue to wage armed rebellion against the West-backed government.
SOURCE: AFP NEWS AGENCY
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