Mogadishu - Two attacks on Thursday killed at least 11 people
in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.
At least five people were killed when a car suicide bomber detonated
his explosives near the presidential palace.
The bomber was reportedly chasing a convoy carrying two police
officers, but missed the target. A civilian vehicle was caught in the
explosion instead.
The dead included three members of the security forces, who were
patrolling in the area, and the bomber, police and witnesses said.
Six people were reported to have been injured. Witness Abdisalan
Garad said some of them were inside a nearby restaurant hit by the
blast. Parts of the building collapsed.
Another bomb meanwhile went off at another restaurant near a
checkpoint manned by security forces on the outskirts of the capital,
police officer Bashir Gedi told reporters.
Four civilians and two soldiers who were inside the restaurant were
killed, and seven other people wounded. Police said the bomb appeared
to have been set off by remote control.
Meanwhile, in Bosaso in the north, gunmen shot and wounded a deputy
police commissioner, local media reported.
Cornell Jama Sahardiid was shot several times in the chest in the
morning. The attackers escaped on foot.
The radical Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed the three attacks on
pro-insurgent radio Andalus, saying it wanted to disrupt the
presidential elections scheduled for December 28.