At least 7 dead, including school children, in Mogadishu car bomb explosion
No fewer than seven people were killed today while 10 people were left injured after a car bomb was detonated outside a restaurant in Mogadishu, close to the Ministry of Interior and Federal affairs.
The blast was caused by a car parked near a restaurant close to the Ministry of Homeland Security in central Mogadishu, a police officer Mohammed Ibrahim disclosed.
“There was a huge blast at a tea-shop near the security ministry, the initial information we are getting indicates it was a car bomb explosion,” said Mohammed Ibrahim.
The powerful blast destroyed the restaurant to a large extent. Police pulled the bloodied body of a man from the rubble and said there may be more. Soldiers pushed back a surging crowd and fired in the air to disperse people, Orlando Sentinel reports.
SOT, Abdifatah Halane, Mayor of Mogadishu Spokesperson said: “The car exploded in the restaurant in the opposite of the Ministry of youth and Sports Building, seven people died some of them are children coming from school and much more are injured, the terrorists wanted to kill as many people as they could.”
No faction has claimed responsibility for the attack although there are suspicions that the al-Shabab extremists who have vowed to destabilise the country’s new government were behind it. Al-Shabab had earlier denounced new Somali-American President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and warned Somalis against supporting him.
