At least five people were injured when a suicide car bomber plowed into a checkpoint near the port in Mogadishu, Somalia early Saturday, Reuters reported.
The explosion shook parts of the capital and metal debris fell far and wide, witnesses said. Police had no immediate comment on casualties. Security forces immediately blanketed the area. The injured were taken to the city’s Madina Hospital for treatment.
Somalia has been a conflict zone since 1991 when clan warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then began fighting with one another. The militant Islamist group al-Shabaab has been trying to take control and impose a harsh form of Sharia law since 2008.