Explosions rocked an African Union peacekeeping base and the airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, police and local residents said Tuesday.
Details of the number of blasts and casualties were not immediately clear. However, local journalists reported that there were fatalities.
A suicide car bomb was detonated close to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base near the airport, police told Reuters. The base is in the “green zone” of Mogadishu, which also contains the United Nations offices as well as foreign embassies.
A police official told The Associated Press that a suicide bomber had targeted a U.N. office, killing three people.
Somali terror group al Shabaab told regional news channel Al Jazeera it had carried out the attack. NBC News could not immediately verify that claim.
Writer and photographer Sakariye Cismaan, who lives in a residential zone close to the airport, said his house was covered in dust and from the explosion, and a small rock.
“I heard one massive blast, followed by another one few minutes later,” he told NBC News. “I spoke with a friend who works at the airport. He told me that a few friends of his are hurt by stray glass from exploded car and the airport’s windows.”
The AMISOM base was previously infiltrated by al Shabaab in December 2014.
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