Suicide car bombing rocks Somali capital, killing at least 10

A suicide car bombing targeting a Mogadishu hotel by the Islamist group al-Shabaab on Thursday killed at least 10 people and destroyed buildings on the Somali capital's busiest street, police said.

It was one of the heaviest blasts to have hit Mogadishu in recent times.

The blast took place in a business centre in Maka Al Mukaram street, where many hotels, shops and restaurants are located, Police Maj. Mohamed Hussein told Reuters.  At least eight others were injured and dozens of vehicles were burning on the street. 

"Over 10 people died. A hotel is burning and other buildings were ruined by the blast. Twenty injured people were carried out. We believe more dead bodies are in the ruined buildings," Police Maj. Abdullahi Ali said.

Militants set off a car bomb near the residence of appeals court chief judge Abshir Omar, and security forces stationed outside the judge's house fought off gunmen who tried to force their way inside, Hussein said. 

Unclear if target was hotel or judge

Two witnesses said the blast ripped off part of the roof of Omar's house. The witnesses, shopkeeper Ahmed Mohamed and area resident Fatima Nur, reported hearing gunfire after the explosion and said smoke billowed from the site of the attack.

Al-Shabaab, which is considered the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, claimed responsibility for the attack. The al-Qaeda-linked group said the Maka Al Mukaram hotel, not the judge's house nearby, was the intended target.

"We targeted and stormed Hotel Maka Al Mukaram," said Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab's military spokesperson. "We are still inside it."

A police officer said the militants detonated the bomb while trying to assassinate a judge. 

Ali, of the police, said he did not believe the militants were inside the hotel. "But anything can happen because it is dark in some of the buildings because the blast cut the electric wires," he said.

Stinking gases from the blast reached several kilometres away from the scene.

Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991. Islamist group al-Shabaab is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by African Union-mandated peacekeepers.

Al-Shabaab has targeted the Maka Al Mukaram hotel multiple times in the past, including a March 2015 attack in which at least 18 people died. 

The militant group, which opposes Somalia's federal government, has carried out many deadly attacks inside Somalia and elsewhere in the region, including in neighbouring Kenya. 

Al-Shabaab also said it was responsible for an attack on a hotel and shopping complex in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that killed 21 people in January.