6 dead, 14 others wounded in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu

Civilians assess the damage at the blast site outside the district office of Hawlwadaag.(Courtesy)

MOGADISHU—At least six people were killed, including two children, in a suicide car bombing outside a district headquarters in central Mogadishu, Somalia on Sunday.

Captain Mohamed Hussein said the bomber tried to speed through a checkpoint but was stopped by security forces, prompting him to detonate the vehicle near the gate of Howlwadaag district headquarters.

“The three soldiers who stopped the truck were killed instantly, and three civilians also died,” said Salah Hassan Omar, the spokesman Mogadishu mayor’s office.

The attack destroyed the building in Mogadishu and caused a nearby school to collapse. Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the scene.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said the group had carried out the attack.

“We are behind the suicide attack. We targeted the district office in which there was a meeting. We killed 10 people so far, we shall give details later.” said Musab.

According to the city’s ambulance service, fourteen people, including six children, were critically wounded. Among the wounded was the deputy district commissioner, Ibrah Hassan Matan.

Most of the wounded were young students from the nearby Quranic secondary school. The school was open at the time of the attack but luckily most of the children were away from the building on a break.

“I saw bodies strewn on the ground after the explosion before the ambulances and the paramedics reached the scene and the whole scene was very ugly,” witness Halima Mohamed told the press.

Al Shabaab often targets the capital with deadly attacks. In October 2017,  the group was responsible for one of the bloodiest single terrorist attacks since 2001 when a bomb killed more than 500 people in Mogadishu.

Somalia has witnessed dramatic amounts of violence and suffered multiple terrorist attacks since 1991, with dozens of people dying and dozens injured almost every month due to the low level of security in the country.