​Somalia: Car bomb targets army checkpoint in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A powerful explosion was heard in the heart of Mogadishu, Somali capital after a car bomb went off at a security checkpoint near the country's parliament building on Saturday evening, Garowe Online reports. 

Witnesses said a suicide bomber rammed his  explosives-laden minivan into a security checkpoint at Sayidka junction, targeting members of Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).

"A loud bang sounded and all I could see was a thick black plume of smoke rising into the sky," said a witness who spoke to GO over the phone from the scene of the explosion.

The car bomb blast was followed by heavy gunfire, he said.

No group has yet claimed credit for the attack, but Al shabaab militants recently has carried out similar attacks in the capital, and elsewhere in Somalia in the past.

GAROWEONLINE