Somalia: At least 4 killed in Mogadishu Car bombing

MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least four people were killed and several wounded in a car bomb explosion outside Somali parliament building in Mogadishu on Sunday afternoon, Garowe Online reports.

The blast occurred in the Sayidka Junction which is lined with government offices and hotels, close to the heavily fortified presidential Palace, known as Villa Somalia.

A witness confirmed to GO that a bomber has rammed his explosives-filled vehicle into the main security checkpoint near the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior and the parliament house in the capital.

“I saw at least four bodies, several cars, and motorbikes burning, ambulances at the scene transporting the wounded to the hospitals,” said the witness, who spoke to GO by phone from the area of the blast.

“The toll could be higher,” he added.

Another witness has described a big explosion on a street, one of the city’s busiest running through central Mogadishu, which was packed with people heading home from work at the time.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but, the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group carried out a car bomb at Weheliye hotel in the city center last Thursday that killed nearly 20 people.

Early in the morning, a car bomb went off at a security checkpoint in Siinka Dheer area, just outside the capital, killing the bomber and wounding several others.

Al Shabaab has intensified car bombings in the capital amid a political crisis and the Federal Government of Somalia is in deadlock over a no-confidence motion against the Lower House Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari.

GAROWE ONLINE