At least 22 people die in powerful bomb blasts in Somali capital

Bomb explosions have killed at least 22 people in two districts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, police say.

An unusually large explosion occurred on Saturday outside a hotel on a crowded junction in the Hodan district of the capital, when an explosive-laden truck was detonated, killing the people who were in its vicinity, said Abdullahi Nur, a police officer who was in the area.

“We know that at least 20 civilians are dead while dozens of others are wounded. We are still busy transporting casualties,” he said, adding that there were bodies under the rubble. Nur expected that “the death toll will surely rise” due to the magnitude of the explosion, which also set dozens of other vehicles on fire.

Police Captain Mohamed Hussein also said security forces were trailing the truck that had raised suspicions, adding that the hotel had been targeted. He said that “the K5 junction” is located in a busy area, which is lined with government offices, hotels, restaurants and shops.

In the Madina district of Mogadishu, a second bombing was carried out about two hours later. "It was a car bomb. Two civilians were killed, " Siyad Farah, a police major, told Reuters. Police had caught an individual on suspicion of planting explosives, he added.

No militant group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but such assaults bear the hallmarks of those usually carried out by Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab Takfiri terrorist group.

The terror group has in the past carried out frequent attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia in a bid to topple the country's government and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops.

PressTV-Car bomb kills 15 in Somali capital

Police said the bomb exploded near Somalia's Defense Ministry compound in Mogadishu on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, government officials announced that the Shabab terrorists took over the town of Bariire, in Lower Shabelle, which is about 50 kilometers from Mogadishu after soldiers withdrew from the area.

“We left Bariire for tactical reasons. We have moved to other towns,” Nur Ali, a military official, said to justify the withdrawal.

Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The country has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.

The Takfiri militant group was forced out of the capital by African Union troops in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside and carries out attacks against government, military and civilian targets. The extremist group is just one of the challenges facing the new Somali government, which is still struggling to expand its authority beyond the capital and other selected areas.

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