At least 3 dead in Al Shabaab car bomb attack

A suicide car bomb at Mogadishu’s traffic police headquarters killed at least three officers on Monday, a regional spokesman said.

Three other police were wounded during the attack and eight civilians were also injured, said Abdifitah Omar Halane, Benadir administration spokesman.

Police managed to kill one of the attackers who had stormed into the traffic police headquarters and opened fire.

Al Shabaab said they were behind the attack and the group lost two attackers, they also claimed the death toll on the government side was nine policemen.

“Two men from al Shabaab militia group driving a Toyota Carib attacked the traffic police headquarter. The car exploded at the front gate, three traffic police officers were killed and eight civilians were wounded at the shops next to the gate. One of the attackers was killed at the headquarters after he opened fire,” said Abdifitah Omar Halane, Benadir administration spokesman.

The front of the traffic headquarters was damaged extensively by the blast, which also destroyed nearby shops.

It was not possible to verify the death toll independently. Al Shabaab, which frequently attacks military and civilian targets in its campaign to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government, has inflated casualty figures in the past.