Somalia's homegrown extremist rebels, al-Shabab, have claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion on Monday that killed at least fourteen people in Somalia's capital.
Police officer Ahmed Baashane told reporters that the explosion was caused by a car bomb in a parking lot near the mall, but it was unclear whether a suicide bomber was involved.
Al-Shabab said its website that the attack was aimed at a gathering of government officials and security and intelligence personnel.
At least fifteen people were also injured in the blast by an explosives-laden car parked near a mall close to Mogadishu's local government offices in the Hamarweyne district, said Police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
Al-Shabab, who are linked to al-Qaida, have been ousted from Mogadishu and most other urban centers in the south and central areas of the country, but the group continues to carry out deadly suicide attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries.
In a separate incident on Monday, al-Shabaab gunmen killed a senior official from Dubai government-owned company P&O Ports.
The official was shot dead in the port town of Bosaso in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland, according to police officer Abdinasir Ali.
Al-Shabaab afterwards claimed responsibility for the murder.
In 2017, P&O Ports won a 30-year concession for the management and development of a port project at Bosasso, strategically-located on the Gulf of Aden in the Horn of Africa and close to the Middle East.
