5 killed in car bomb attack in Somalia

Five people were killed in a car-bomb explosion near the Somali parliament headquarters in central Mogadishu on Saturday.

A bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of the parliament building, leaving four people dead, a government source said.

Several people, including two Somali policemen, were injured in the attack, the source said.

The victims comprise two soldiers, two civilians and the fifth was shot dead by soldiers as he drove past the attack site, some sources reported.

Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into the attack.

No groups claimed the responsibility for Saturday's attack.

Somalia, a long-troubled Horn of Africa country, has remained in the grip of political violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

The battered country had appeared to inch closer to stability with the recent installation of a new government and the intervention of Kenya-led African Union troops tasked with combatting Al-Shabaab.