On Sunday, a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint near the Interior Ministry on a road leading to the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu. The Shabab, an Islamist extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed 13 members of the security forces, although that could not be independently verified. The group, which has been behind bombings and other attacks in Mogadishu, aims to topple Somalia’s Western-backed federal government. Earlier on Sunday, another car bomb exploded in Siinka Dheer, outside Mogadishu, but the toll was not immediately clear. The second car bomb on Sunday was detonated at a checkpoint after soldiers stopped a suspicious vehicle, a senior police captain, Mohamed Hussein, told The Associated Press.

Source: New York Times March 25, 2018 17:15 UTC