MOGADISHU
Twenty people were killed on Sunday when a booby-trapped car exploded on a road leading to the presidential palace in the Somali capital Mogadishu, eyewitnesses said.
They said the booby-trapped car was inside the parking area of a hotel on a road connecting Adam Abdullah International Airport and the presidential palace in Mogadishu.
Most of the victims were civilians, the eyewitnesses said, noting that a large number of other people were injured in the blast.
Mohamed Omar, one of the injured, described the blast as powerful and occurred while many people were leaving the hotel.
He reported seeing many killed and wounded civilians.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the blast yet.
The Somali government usually, however, points the finger at the militant movement Al-Shabaab.
The Qaeda-linked group has been fighting the Mogadishu government and African peacekeepers for years now.
Somalia, a long-troubled country in the Horn of Africa, has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
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