UPDATE - Car bomb in Somali capital kills 14

UPDATES DEATH TOLL TO 14 FROM 10 AND INJURY TOLL FROM 8 TO 15, HEADLINE UPDATED WITH NEW TOLL

By Mohammed Dhaysane

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – At least 14 people were killed and more than 15 others wounded when a car bomb targeted a busy market in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, regional administrative officials told Anadolu Agency.

Abdi Fatah Hallane, a spokesman for the Banadir regional administration -- in which Mogadishu is located – confirmed the explosion was a car bomb.

The market, known as Suqa Berta, is in the city’s Waberi district and is one of the most frequented one in Somalia. It is also close to the country’s main police headquarters.

“It is very early to say how many people were killed or injured, but we know that insurgents attacked innocent people,” Hallane said.

Hussien Ahmed Olosow, Waberi district commissioner, confirmed the casualty toll to reporters during a news briefing, saying that most of the dead and wounded were civilians.

“The wounded people were rushed to main hospitals such as Madina,” Olosow said.

A doctor in Mogadishu’s main hospital Medina, who requested not to be named due to security concerns, told Anadolu Agency the death toll could rise further to 20.

Abdirisack Hassan Afrah, an eyewitness, told Anadolu Agency he saw a lot of wounded people, including women who had been shopping in the market.

Later, speaking at an event in university in Mogadishu, President Hasan Sheikh Mohamoud said security forces had nabbed a suspected member of the al-Shabaab militant group for alleged involvement in the attack.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility but al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab militants have owned up to other recent attacks in Somalia.

Saturday’s attack comes two days after a car bomb in Mogadishu killed a senior U.A.E.-trained Somali-Yemeni military figure who al-Shabaab claimed was an intelligence officer.​