A double car bombing in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu killed at least 18 people and injured 20 others on Friday, said officials.
They said the attacks were carried out by the Islamist militant group al Shabaab and security forces shot dead five assailants.
Shooting broke out near the president’s residence at the time of the explosions, news agency Reuters reported quoting police and ambulance services.
“So far we carried 18 dead people and 20 others injured from the blasts tonight,” Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Amin Ambulances said.
Police said the first car bomb went off after militants breached a checkpoint near the president’s residence by shooting at security personnel. The second blast was a car bomb parked in front of a hotel away from the palace.
Al Shabaab, who have claimed responsibility for previous bombings and gun attacks in the capital, said they killed 15 soldiers in Friday’s attack, but this could not be confirmed.
The group, which is linked to al Qaeda, wants to overthrow the Somali government and impose its own harsh interpretation of Islamic law. It has killed hundreds of civilians across East Africa and thousands of Somalis in a decade-long insurgency.
Security Minister Mohamed Abukar Islow said the security forces had subdued the al Shabaab attackers and killed five of them.
Al Shabaab’s Abu Musab said their fighters were yet to be subdued.
The streets around the palace and the hotel were surrounded by security forces, witnesses said.
In October, more than 500 people were killed in twin bomb blasts in Mogadishu. The bomb attacks were the deadliest since al Shabaab began an insurgency in 2007. Al Shabaab did not claim responsibility for that incident.
