Deadly bomb blast near Somali parliament

Five people were killed in a car-bomb explosion near the Somali parliament headquarters in central Mogadishu on Saturday.

A bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of the parliament building, leaving four people dead, a government source said.

Several people, including two Somali policemen, were injured in the attack, the source said.

No Somali lawmakers were injured in the attack, according to the source.

Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into the attack.

There was no claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attack.

Somalia, a long-troubled Horn of Africa country, has remained in the grip of political violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

The battered country had appeared to inch closer to stability with the recent installation of a new government and the intervention of Kenya-led African Union troops tasked with combatting Al-Shabaab.

A Reuters reporter saw bloody, broken chairs that were used by the troops guarding parliament before the attack.

“A car bomb occurred near the parliament house but we are all safe,” Dahir Amin Jesow, a legislator, said, referring to lawmakers inside the building.

“I could see a dead soldier and three other injured soldiers outside parliament’s compound, which is safe,” he said.

Government forces blocked all roads leading to the area and the sound of ambulances could be heard.

“We were shaken by a huge blast near the parliament house. We were immediately surrounded by forces and we cannot go out of houses,” Farah Sabdow, a local resident, told Reuters.

 

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