Iran Press/Africa: At least three people were killed and 20 others, including Turkish nationals, injured after a suicide car bomb blast targeted a police convoy escorting Turkish contractors in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday.
According to Reuters news agency, it is not known who carried out the attack but residents and police said al Shabaab fighters had tried to attack Afgoye, about 30 km from Mogadishu, late on Friday 17th January and were repulsed.
“A speeding suicide car bomb rammed into a place where the Turkish engineers and Somali police were having lunch,” police officer Nur Ali told Reuters from Afgoye.
“So far we know three Turkish engineers and their translator were injured. Two other policemen were injured in the blast,” Ali said later when asked about casualties.
Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said four Turks, employees of a construction firm, were wounded in the attack and were being treated in hospital, citing information from the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu.
This comes three weeks after an extremist group, Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a car bomb blast in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people in late December.
Two Turkish nationals were killed when a small team of Turkish engineers were present at the time of the blast constructing a road to the city.
The bombing was the deadliest the country had experienced in more than two years, having suffered nearly three decades of violence and clan warfare.
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