A CAR BOMB exploded near a police station in a busy market in the Somali capital today, killing at least 11 people and injuring 16 others, a police official has said.

The attack targeted a police station in Mogadishu’s Waberi neighborhood while President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had been visiting a university, Captain Mohamed Hussein said.

He said the death toll was likely to rise, citing the horrific injuries suffered by the victims.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group al-Shabab often carries out such attacks.

Medical sources suggested nearly 30 people had been killed, but this was not confirmed by authorities.

“Our ambulances have collected 13 wounded civilians and 28 dead bodies, the toll could be higher because of the density of the location where the blast occurred,” Dr Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adem, director of the AMIN ambulance service, told AFP.

Al-Shabab

Al-Shabab, which seeks to establish an Islamic emirate ruled by a strict version of Shariah law, has waged an insurgency against Somalia’s weak UN-backed government.

More than 22,000 peacekeepers are deployed in Somalia in the multinational African Union force. Al-Shabab opposes the presence of foreign troops.

Despite being ousted from most of its key strongholds in south and central Somalia, the group continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks against the Somali government and African Union forces across large parts of the horn of Africa nation.

Contains reporting from © AFP 2016

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