At least five people were killed and four wounded when a car bomb exploded in the Somali capital on Saturday, a police officer said.
A second explosion followed nearby but the cause has yet to be determined, Major Mohamed Hussein told Reuters.
“The first suicide car bomb at the checkpoint killed five people mostly security soldiers. Four others were injured. Death toll may rise. It is too early to have details of second blast,” Hussein said.
A Reuters witness at the scene of the second blast said he saw at least two bodies.
Ahmed Abdi, another police officer, said the car bomb exploded at a checkpoint some 400 metres from the president’s residence.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the blasts. Islamist militant group Al Shabaab carries out frequent attacks in Mogadishu. Its members want to dislodge the central government and impose its rule based on its own strict interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.
