Car bomb wounds 4 UN guards in Somalia's capital

Security forces inspect the damage site following a car explosion in Somalia on January 2 2017 [Sadaq Mohamed/Anadolu]

A car bomb wounded at least four UN guards when it exploded near a United Nations compound in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu today, police said.

Al-Qaeda-allied Al Shabaab insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We can confirm that four guards working for the United Nations were injured,” Major Nur Osman, a police officer at the scene, told Reuters.

The bomb was planted in a car parked in a garage outside facilities belonging to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Osman said.

“We are behind the blast that injured at least three UN guards this morning,” Al Shabaab’s spokesperson on military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said.

The militants often carry out such attacks in the capital in their fight to topple the Western-backed government.

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