Bomb attack in Somalia: Eight killed, 17 injured including children

Suicide bomber Somlaya
Somalia bombing / Photo EPA-EFE / SAID YUSUF WARSAME

An Islamist bomb blast outside a school in the Somali capital has killed at least eight people and injured 17 others, including 13 children, in the latest in a series of deadly bombings this year.

Al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the blast, which took place at around 7am this morning, with the aim of attacking a United Nations convoy passing near the school.

A UN spokesman in Mogadishu declined to comment. An unnamed UN official said no international staff had been injured but that no Somali workers had been injured.

"Schools and all other places where children gather should be safe for children at all times"said in a statement Mohamed Malik Fall, UNICEF Regional Director for East and South Africa.

A police spokesman, Abdifatah Aden Hassan, told reporters that a suicide bomber in an off-road vehicle full of explosives tried to hit a UN convoy.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for al-Shabab military operations, confirmed that the Islamist group had carried out the attack on a UN convoy.

Al-Shabab has been fighting Somalia's central government for years and trying to seize power to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

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