Mogadishu market bombing kills seven in Somalia

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Seven civilians were killed and five were wounded in Somalia on Monday when a car bomb detonated at a busy market in the capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

The explosion occurred after security forces stopped a suspicious vehicle at the market in the south of the city.

“The suspected driver was stopped by the security forces and was being questioned when the vehicle went off,” said police officer Mohamed Hassan.

“According to the initial information we obtained, seven people died in the blast and five others were wounded,” he said.

“The suspect is now in police custody.”

Witnesses said the explosion wrecked part of the Kawo Godey market in the city’s Wadajir district.

“The area was densely populated,” said Abdulahi Malim. “It was horrible and most of the buildings in the area had been destroyed.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion will fall on Somalia’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Shabaab, which is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government and carries out regular bombings and armed assaults on government, military and civilian targets.

The market was previously attacked in February 2017 when 39 died in a suicide car bombing.