Five people were killed and 13 wounded on Monday when a auto bomb exploded near a heavily-guarded complex housing the offices of Somalia’s president and its prime minister in Mogadishu, a security official said.
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Mohamed Hussein, another officer, told the Associated Press news agency that the bomber appeared to target foreign officials who were leaving the building, killing two of them.
“There were casualties but we are still investigating”, Ali Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters.
“The blast was powerful and happened near presidential palace”.
“Three foreigners were also killed in the attack”, he said.
The presidential palace, or Villa Somalia, is the seat of the government.
Sources told Xinhua that the explosion happened after a conference debating the nature of the Horn of Africa nation’s election in 2016 had just ended in the compound.
In the first, a suicide bomber drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a base on the outskirts of the southern city of Kismayo, where African Union peacekeepers from Kenya as well as Somali government soldiers are stationed.
The Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has ties with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message broadcast over its online radio Andalus.
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“Soldiers surrounded the area and we can only see ambulances rushing in and out”.
