Suicide Bomb Blast Targeting Gov’t Convoy Kills At Least 8 in Mogadishu

TEHRAN (IQNA) – A suicide car bomb targeting a government convoy exploded at a busy junction in Somalia's capital on Saturday, killing at least eight people, an eyewitness said.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, military operations spokesperson for the al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-​Shabaab, told Reuters it was responsible for Saturday's attack.

The group, which wants to overthrow the government, frequently carries out such bombings.

The convoy was carrying senior police official Farhan Qarole, who survived the attack, the Somali government news agency reported.

"I have seen eight dead bodies at the scene including a woman," Hassan Sayid Ali, a driver of a three-wheeled motorized vehicle taxi, said at the scene of the blast at Banadir junction in Mogadishu.