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Blast rocks Somalia parliament building in Mogadishu Deadly car bomb rocks Somalia parliament building
(35 minutes later)
A loud explosion was heard near the Somali parliament building on Saturday, a few hundred metres from the presidential compound. Several people have been killed as a powerful suicide car bomb exploded near Somalia's parliament on Saturday, police and witnesses said.
Government forces blocked all roads leading into the area and the sound of ambulance sirens could be heard. Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab rebels claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a surge of attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, during Islam's holy month of Ramadan.
"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 resident in the area, told Reuters. "A car loaded with explosives was intercepted near the parliament and it went off. There are casualties but we don't have details so far," a police official, Mohamed Idle, told AFP. He confirmed a suicide bomber was in the car.
More details to follow … Police and witnesses at the scene said as many as four were killed and many more wounded. Police spokesman Qasim Ahmed Roble said two policemen were among the dead.
Al-Shabaab, who have carried out frequent attacks against the parliament and other centres of Somalia's fragile, internationally-backed government, said they were responsible and vowed their attacks would continue.
"We killed more than a dozen so-called police members after sacrificial attack at the main entrance of parliament buildings," Abdulaziz Abu Musab, military spokesman of al-Shabaab, told AFP.
"We want to tell them that the MPs are not safe anywhere in Mogadishu. By the grace of Allah more attacks will come and continue."
Last month, militants from teh group set off a car bomb at the gates of parliament and then stormed the building while MPs were meeting, in an attack that left several dead.
At the time a spokesman described the parliament as a "military zone" and a legitimate target. On , Thursday, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for shooting dead a lawmaker and his bodyguard.