Officials have revealed that a car bomb exploded near a checkpoint in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia on Wednesday, 22nd of May, with at least 2 people been killed, and 12 been wounded.

The Islamist militant group, Al-Shabaab claimed the act, which said in a statement it had targeted a convoy escorting officials and lawmakers heading to the presidential palace.

“A car bomb blast struck at a checkpoint near Daljirka, there are some casualties including members of the security forces,” said security official Abdukadir Ahmed after the attack in the south of the city.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin ambulance service, told AFP two people were killed and twelve others wounded in the blast.

Other witnesses said they had seen three killed.

“I saw the bodies of three people among them a military woman,” said witness Mohamed Saney.

“Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast and ambulances rushed to the scene to collect wounded people.”

Al-Shabaab is fighting to displace the internationally backed government in Somalia, but has also carried out attacks in neighboring Kenya, which has deployed troops as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia.

The Shabaab were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 by the 22,000-strong African Union mission AMISOM, and have had to leave most of their strongholds, but they still control vast rural areas and remain the paramount threat to peace in Somalia.

The group claimed responsibility for a car bomb on April 17 in Mogadishu that killed four people. The bomb detonated along the busy Maka Al-Mukarama road despite a recent increase in police checkpoints in the capital.

A car bomb ripped through a restaurant on the Maka Al-Mukarama road on March 28, killing 15 people just days after Shabaab gunmen assaulted a complex housing government ministries, killing 11 people including the deputy labour minister.

There have also been several smaller blasts in the capital.