A car bomb exploded at a crowded shopping mall in Mogadishu, the Somali capital on Monday morning, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens of others, police and witnesses said, CNN reports.
Capt. Farah Osman, a Somali police officer at the scene, confirmed to CNN that the explosion tore through a Mogadishu mall in the capital's business district, Hamarweyne.
The death toll may rise as rescuers search for survivors and some of the wounded are in critical condition, Osman said.
Ibrahim Jama, a witness, said explosion rattled windows of several nearby business buildings.
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group was also responsible for three car bombings last November that killed at least 52 people and injured about 100 more.
The bombs were detonated near a hotel popular with visitors to Somalia and international journalists.
Since 2006, the group has carried out several attacks in Mogadishu killing international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders, and peacekeepers, as well as Somalia's government and military targets.
It wants to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The attack marks the second major terror attack carried out by Al-Shabaab in 2019 following last month’s hours-long siege in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
At least 21 people were killed when militants from the terror group laid siege at the DusitD2 compound, an upmarket cluster of shops and hotel facilities in Nairobi.
WN.com, Jim Berrie
Photo:
AP / Farah Abdi Warsameh
