Several people were wounded after the main motorcade of Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was targeted by a roadside bomb in Mogadishu on Tuesday.
The attack near the presidential compound was perpetrated by the militant sect al-Shabaab which claimed responsibility for what appeared to be a failed assassination bid.
The group have been waging an Islamist insurgency against successive governments in Somalia since 2006 and has been responsible for a series of bombings in and around the capital.
President Mohamud escaped unscathed, according to information put out by the information ministry which stopped short of confirming fatalities from the blast.
However witnesses said at least three bodies were found at the scene.
The bomb went off shortly after President Mohamud’s motorcade left the palace for the main airport on his way to supervising a military expedition against the militants in the Middle Shabelle region of southern Somalia.
Hours later Mr. Mohmud’s office said the president was at the front lines of the war against al- Shabaab and held a meeting in Mogokori district with the leader of Hirshabeelle region and army officers leading the operations.
In recent weeks government troops backed by African peacekeepers and US airstrikes have stepped up operations to flush the militants out of the area.
Several of Somalia’s international partners have condemned the attack including the UN, UK, Egypt and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), calling it a ‘cowardly and desperate act’.
WN/as/APA