Three killed in Somalia car bomb two days after airplane blast in Mogadishu

Three people were killed on Friday in a car bomb targeting an airport official in Somalia’s capital.

#Somalia car bomb kills 3 targeting airport official – amid probe into plane blast AFP https://t.co/GLVLRkzHvp pic.twitter.com/OHlvLuWoYg

— Peter Martell (petermartell) February 5, 2016

“An airport security official was targeted but he survived the attack, three other people including a woman were killed in the blast,” said Ali Dahir, a police official.

According to witnesses, there was an enormous explosion with the car bursting into flames. The man believed to have been targeted had just left the vehicle to go into a chemist shop.

“A man got out of the car and entered a pharmacy, but before he returned a huge blast ripped through the car. I saw several people burned,” said Aded Mohamed, an eye witness.

The car bomb follows a blast on a commercial airliner that ripped a hole in its fuselage, 15 minutes after take-off from Mogadishu on Tuesday.

It is unclear whether the two blasts were in any way related, but security has been boosted around the already heavily fortified airport.

At the moment,no group has claimed responsibility for the car bomb, but Somalia’s Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab extremists have carried out a raft of similar attacks in the past.