Explosion hits Somali capital

A suicide bomber targeting a minibus full of delegates involved in Somalia’s parliamentary elections killed at least six people in Mogadishu on February 10, the ambulance service said, while Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, Report informs referring to Reuters.

The blast occurred early on February 10 while the vehicle was passing a busy junction on a road heading to the president’s office in the capital of the East African nation.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Mogadishu’s Aamin Ambulance Services, said its personnel carried six bodies from the scene. It was not immediately clear who the casualties were.

A delegate on the bus said the passengers were unharmed.

Somalia’s elections for lawmakers began on November 1 and were initially supposed to end on December 24, but are currently due to be completed on February 25. The attack on delegates may present an additional challenge to the election.

According to Somalia's indirect electoral process, regional councils are meant to choose a senate. Delegates include clan elders who pick members of the lower house, which would then choose a new president at a date yet to be fixed.