MOGADISHU – A car bomb at Somali traffic police headquarters in the capital of Mogadishu has killed at least two officers on Monday in a suicide attack, police said.

The country’s al-Shabaab militant group has claimed responsibility.

Abdifatah Omar Halane, spokesman for the mayor’s office, said three other police officers were killed in the blast in the city’s Shangani neighbourhood.

“The attack involved two Shebab members, one of them driving a car loaded with explosives, and another tried to storm the police headquarters but was shot dead. We have lost three policemen.”

He said two civilians were shot by police responding to the attack and added that those responsible had been arrested.

Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group, has waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2006 in a bid to impose a strict version of Islamic law.

– with other agencies