Car bomb kills eight in Somali capital: emergency services

A car bomb exploded near the Somali parliament Saturday, killing eight people, emergency workers said, hours after militia executed nine civilians from a clan with suspected links to the Islamist Al-Shabaab.

"We have confirmed eight people killed and 16 others wounded in the blast," the private Aamin Ambulance service said.

A second blast on a key road leading to the airport of the Somali capital Mogadishu did not cause any casualties.

The Al-Shabaab group claimed responsibility for the attacks saying they were "they were targeting two checkpoints, one of them along the airport road and (the other) along the road that leads to house of legislators."
Abdulahi Mire, who witnessed the explosion near the parliament building said; ""I saw four dead bodies and four others wounded in the blast."
"Their killing cannot be justified. It seems that the merciless gunmen were retaliating for the security official who they believe was killed by Al-Shabaab gunmen belonging to the clan of the victims."