A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into the entrance of a Somali intelligence training center Sunday, a government official said.
And armed attackers traded heavy gunfire with security guards as they tried to enter the building, said Mohamed Yusuf, spokesman for the Somali Security Ministry.
The militant Islamist group Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, Yusuf said.
Yusuf said Somali security forces killed three insurgents. But at least one Somali intelligence official was also killed, he said.
Al Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States. It has waged a long insurgency in Somalia.