Two car bombs detonated Sunday at a Somali government office in the nation’s capital, Mogadishu, police said.
Police Capt. Bashir Mohamed said one of the explosives went off at the gate of Somalia’s Criminal Investigative Division. The other detonated outside the gate. The blasts were followed by heavy gunfire.
Police say they shot and killed the attackers as they tried to enter the division’s headquarters.
Al Shabaab issued a claim of responsibility
In a Twitter post, Somali Security Minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed tweeted three attackers who tried to enter the buildings were shot dead by police guards. He tweeted there were no casualties among security force members.
Somali forces cordoned off the area of the blasts, while ambulances transferred wounded to a nearby hospitals for medical treatment, Mohamed said.
The Al Shabaab terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they raided Somalia’s CID with car bombs, according to Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman.