At least five people were killed and several others injured on Saturday after a car bomb went off near a main junction in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.
The car bomb struck a restaurant close to the Jubba junction before sunset.
Police officials told local media that the car laden with explosives was parked in an area close to the restaurant and went off. It is not clear who or where the target was.
‘’All the people killed were civilians sitting at the restaurant and passers-by,’’ said one witness.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the al-Shabaab extremists have carried out similar attacks in Mogadishu since they were flushed out in 2011.
The attack in Mogadishu comes after a suicide bomber attacked a military training camp in the strategic port town of Kismayo earlier on Saturday, killing more than 15 people, which most of them have been reported to be new army recruits.
Al Shabaab insurgents have staged a string of assaults in their fight to overthrow the country’s internationally-backed government. They have targeted hotels, the international airport, Villa Somalia, a United Nations compound and restaurants in a bid to discredit claims by the authorities and AU troops that they are winning the war.
In most of the attacks carried out by the militants in Mogadishu, the casualties of the civilians are higher than the government officials.
Horseed Media
Somalia: Car bomb near restaurant kills 5 people in Mogadishu
Published: August 22, 2015