Hiiraan Online
Saturday September 22, 2018
MOGADISHU (HOL) – A car bomb exploded in the Somali capital late on Saturday, killing one person as the city faces a new surge in bomb attacks and assassinations largely targeting government workers and civilians, officials, witnesses say.
According to witnesses, a bomb concealed under the seat of a car owned by a university lecturer was detonated along Dabka, a key junction in Mogadishu, igniting a huge fire and killed his brother who was driving the car at the time.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, the second bombing in the long-chaotic city which is recovering from decades of a bloody civil war.
Videos posted on the social media showed chaotic scenes as firefighters struggled to contain a fire ignited by the bomb which has largely destroyed the car.
Meanwhile, one person has been injured in a separate car bomb blast along Maka Almukarramah, a major boulevard in the centre of Mogadishu.
The bomb hidden inside the car has left the driver severely injured, officials say.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for both explosions.
According to security officials, bombs planted in cars are increasingly becoming the choice of weapons for militants fighting the government and African Union forces protecting it, owing to al-Shabab’s inability by to infiltrate Mogadishu with car bombs often used to infiltrate heavily protected facilities including government institutions amid increase in security checkpoints and soldiers inspecting cars and motorists deployed across the city.