Somalia’s government spokesperson was wounded on Sunday in an explosion in the capital suspected to have been set off by a suicide bomb , state-run media reported.
A photographer at the scene of the explosion reported seeing body parts lying on the ground outside the house of Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, who was rushed to a hospital.
State-run Somali National News Agency said the blast at a junction of a Mogadishu road was from a suicide bomber.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
Al-Shabab – an al-Qaeda-linked armed group fighting to overthrow the country’s UN-backed government – often claims responsibility for attacks around Somalia.
Somalia’s allies and international observers have also expressed alarm over an escalating power struggle between the country’s president and prime minister.
Moalimuu is a senior media adviser to Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble. Soldiers loyal to Roble gathered on the streets in December.
The show of force came after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmaajo, announced the suspension of Roble’s powers for suspected corruption, a move the prime minister described as a coup attempt.
Factions of the security forces allied to Mohamed and Roble in April seized areas of the capital, as the prime minister and opposition opposed a move to extend the president’s four-year term by another two years.
Clashes between the two groups forced between 60,000 and 100,000 people to flee their homes.
