“At 9:10 am, a terrorist car loaded with explosives … crashed into a checkpoint near the Sayidka junction. Security forces opened fire on the car as they ran to the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu,” said a police statement.
Police said the suicide bomber also died in the explosion.
“Thank God, surveillance by the security forces saved the people from the threat of terrorism to the innocent Somali people,” the statement added.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the midst of a political crisis in Somalia after the country’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, expired on February 8, without timely elections.
Saturday’s incident was the second major explosion in the Somali capital in recent weeks.
Al-Shabaab took responsibility for the attack in a statement broadcast by Radio Andalus, its spokesman. CNN was unable to independently verify this statement.
The insurgent group seeks to transform Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state. He had previously taken responsibility for other attacks in Mogadishu, including a truck bomb in December that killed 85