At least two injured after car bomb blast hits gov't building in Somali capital
MOGADISHU. February 17. KAZINFORM Car bomb explosion at Somali government's Central Investigation Department (CID) in Mogadishu on Friday left at least two people injured and partly destroyed exterior wall off the building, officials and witnesses said, according to Xinhua.
Government security forces brought the car to the CID headquarters after they suspected it of carrying explosives and arrested four men caught with the car, Aden Kalmoy Dhaqane, a senior security official told reporters.
"We detained the car in the early hours of today (Friday) and arrested four men who were with the car but unfortunately the explosives in car went off inside the compound," Dhaqane told reporters.
Dhaqane said that two people were slightly injured in the explosion that partly destroyed wall of the government building and the force of the blast overturned a number of vehicles in the compound.
"Charred and crocked remains of the car bomb scattered all over the yard of the building while large chunk of the car continued to burn," Muse Harun, an eyewitness told Xinhua.
The building has been the target of a previous explosion which also hit a nearby government compound housing a number of ministries including education ministry where students were seeking scholarship granted by the Turkish government.
Dozens of people mainly students at the government building died in the blast last year and was claimed by Islamist Al-Shabaab movement.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attack but Islamist Al-Shabaab group is known to carry out such attacks.
The radical Somali group this month announced it had joined forces with al Qaida, the international terror network.