© Farah Abdi Warsameh/APSecurity forces and civilians gather near the wreckage of the attack in Mogadishu on Saturday.
A suicide car bomb
targeting a government convoy exploded at a busy junction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least nine people and injuring eight others, a health official said.
The convoy was
carrying a senior police official, Farhan Mohamud, who survived the attack on Saturday, the government news agency reported.
Al-Shabaab, which wants to overthrow the government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, has claimed responsibility for the attack.Dr Mohamed Nur, at the Medina hospital, told reporters that the toll reflected only the dead and wounded who were taken to the facility in Mogadishu where he works.
"I am sure the number is bigger as some of the victims were rushed to other hospitals, such as the privately owned ones," he said.
"The commissioner is unharmed but there are other casualties the attack inflicted," said Somali police spokesperson Sadiiq Dudishe.
He said the bomber, using an explosive-laden vehicle, struck the convoy of Mohamud, the Banadir regional police commissioner, at a busy intersection in the capital.
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