MOGADISHU: A car bomb targeting senior officials leaving a military base in Mogadishu killed at least 15 people and destroyed a minibus carrying civilians, the Somali military said on Sunday, an attack claim by Islamist al Shabaab militants. It occurred a week after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed replaced his security chiefs and called on al Shabaab fighters to surrender within 60 days in return for education and jobs

"At least 15 people, mostly civilians, died in (Sunday's) the blast," Somali Major Hussein Nur told Reuters. He said at the time the death toll could rise because some injuries were serious, but there was no official word of more deaths on Saturday. We cannot give the exact figure of casualties, but many civilians died in the attack," Hussein added. Al Shabaab, waging an increasingly deadly campaign of bombings despite losing most of its territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the Somali government, was behind the attack, according to Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Qaeda-affiliated group's spokesman for military operations.
A car bomb explodes outside the Ministry of Defence in Mogadishu, killing at least 15 people. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack.