Explosions rocked a peacekeeping base and the airport in Somalia’s capital, police and local residents said Tuesday.
Details of the number of blasts and casualties in Mogadishu were not immediately clear.
A suicide car bomb was detonated close to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base near the airport, police told Reuters. The base is in the “green zone” of Mogadishu, which also contains the United Nations offices as well as foreign embassies.
Somali soldiers stand near the wreckage of a car bomb outside the UN’s office in Mogadishu. Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP
Police captain Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press that a suicide bomber had targeted the U.N.’s Mine Action Service office in the area, killing three people.
A huge cloud of smoke was visible over the city skyline.
Somali terror group al Shabaab, which wants to establish an Islamic emirate based on a strict form of Islam, told regional news channel Al Jazeera it had carried out the attack. NBC News could not immediately verify that claim.
Writer and photographer Sakariye Cismaan, who lives in a residential zone close to the airport, said his house was covered in dust and from the explosion, and a small rock.
“I heard one massive blast, followed by another one few minutes later,” he told NBC News. “I spoke with a friend who works at the airport. He told me that a few friends of his are hurt by stray glass from exploded car and the airport’s windows.”