10 dead in suicide bomb, gunfire attack on Somali parliament
At least ten people were killed and more than 10 others injured after a suicide car bomb went off outside Somali parliament in Mogadishu followed by heavy exchanges of gunfire, police and witnesses said.
Explosions and gunfire were heard and witnesses reported seeing bodies.
Somali police were joined by African Union troops as they engaged the attackers.
Somali authorities say some lawmakers were in the building when the bomb blast hit Saturday in Mogadishu.
A car bomb outside the gates of parliament exploded shortly before midday local time (09:00 GMT), followed by more blasts and bursts of gunfire.
"The lawmakers and the other workers were rescued as soon as the car bomb exploded. But the terrorists are still firing from inside a mosque nearby," the Reuters news agency quoted a police colonel as saying.
Four police officers had died, he told Reuters.
It is not clear whether gunmen managed to get inside the building on Saturday.
In February, al-Shabab militants attacked the presidential palace in Mogadishu, leaving at least 16 people dead.
Mogadishu has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks claimed by the militants.
Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, once controlled large areas of Somalia but was pushed out of major cities in 2011 and 2012.
Source: Agencies
The Times of Earth ( TOE) founded in 1999, is a multilingual newspaper that is printed and circulated in many countries including some parts of the United States and Canada. It is considered as the largest trusted & respected international multimedia news/financial information source of the world.