Suicide Car Bomber Attacks Government Office in Somalia

A nearby school was destroyed in the blast, no word yet on casualties

MOGADISHU—A suicide car bomb struck a local government office in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Sunday, Sep. 2, police said, destroying the building and a school opposite.

Police said a suicide car bomb targeted a government office on Sunday, Sep. 2. in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Google maps)

Ambulances took casualties to hospitals as people searched through the rubble for survivors, a Reuters witness said. The blast also blew off the roof of a mosque and damaged houses nearby.

Emergency services work at the site of a blast in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 2, 2018 in this still image obtained from a social media video. (Munasar Mohamed/via Reuters)

“A suicide car bomb (rammed) into the district office of Hawlwadag in Mogadishu. It is too early to know casualties,” Abdullahi Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters.

People look at debris at the site of a blast in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 2, 2018 in this still image obtained from a social media video. (Munasar Mohamed/via Reuters)

A Reuters journalist on the scene saw a human hand and blood stains in the rubble.

Smoke rises from the site of a blast in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 2, 2018 in this still image obtained from a social media video. (Munasar Mohamed/via Reuters)

Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991. Islamist group Al Shabaab is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by African Union-mandated peacekeepers.