8 killed in blasts on security building in Mogadishu

At least eight people were killed Sunday morning in a twin car bombing at a police headquarters in Somali capital Mogadishu, a security source said.

The government said seven attackers were also killed, most in a gun battle after the blasts rocked the offices of the Criminal Investigation Department.

Abdul Kamil Mohamed Shoukri, spokesman for the Ministry of National Security, said five of the attackers had tried to storm the building before police stopped them.

He added: “Fifteen people were killed, including seven attackers, a policeman and seven civilians.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity due to safety fears, the security source said most of the victims were civilians crossing the street at the moment of the attack.

Witnesses said they saw the body parts of five civilians scattered around the site of the attack.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, the second major operation carried out by the group this week. On Tuesday, two car bombs detonated at the gates to the African Union’s main peacekeeping base, killing at least 14 people.

The terror group was formed in 2004 from the ashes of Somalia’s civil war and has also carried out atrocities in neighboring Kenya and Uganda, two of the main providers of peacekeeping troops.