MOGADISHU, Somalia — Two car bomb blasts in Somalia’s capital killed at least 18 people on Friday and shattered a monthslong period of calm in Mogadishu. The explosions came a day after Somalia’s interior minister warned of an explosives-laden vehicle somewhere in the capital. The first explosion occurred near the country’s intelligence headquarters, police Capt. He said the second occurred near Parliament’s headquarters, where a vehicle tried to speed through a checkpoint. Mogadishu was the target of a truck bombing in October that killed 512 people, the deadliest attack in the Horn of Africa and one for which the Shabab was blamed.

Source: New York Times February 24, 2018 00:00 UTC