5 including ex-minister killed in latest bomb attack in Mogadishu

A former Somali foreign minister was among five killed on Wednesday when a car bomb exploded in the capital Mogadishu, according to the country's information minister.

Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayr told a press conference that former foreign minister Hussein Elabe Faahiye, who served under former premier Ali Mohamed Gedi in 2007, was among those killed.

A police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua that a car filled with explosives went off as police were checking vehicles in Mogadishu's Bondhere District, causing deaths and injuries.

Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, director of Mogadishu's free ambulance service Aamin Ambulance, said that they had taken 12 injured people from the scene.

“The blast happened in a traffic area at a police checkpoint, so far we can confirm four people died in the explosion. We are establishing more details on the incident,” the officer said.

Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed the attack and said that it had targeted a convoy escorting officials and lawmakers heading to the presidential palace.

(CGTN)