At Least 4 Killed In Al Shabab Suicide Bombing Near UN Convoy In Somali Capital Of Mogadishu

Update as of 6:45 a.m. EST: Militants of the al Shabab group have claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.N. convoy, according to a report by Reuters.

“Our Mujahideen based in Mogadishu have today targeted a convoy of foreign mercenaries and their apostate allies nearby the airport,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesperson for al Shabab, reportedly said on Wednesday.

A U.N. spokesperson in Mogadishu told Reuters that no U.N. staff was killed in the attack, which left at least four people dead and injured 10 others.

At least four people were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a car into a United Nations convoy in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The attack took place in a high-security zone near the Mogadishu airport, which houses a number of foreign embassies, according to media reports.

“The bomber drove in between the security escort and the UN armored vehicles and detonated the car, ramming into one of the escort vehicles,” Mohamed Liban, a Somali police officer, told Agence France-Presse. “I saw four dead people so far, but the casualties are believed to be more.”

The airport is also the base of over 20,000 troops of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), who are currently battling the al Qaeda-linked Islamist al Shabab group in the country.

Although no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, militants of al Shabab have frequently carried out suicide bombings across the country. The group had also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks over the last two weeks on civilians living along the Kenya-Somalia border.