At least two people were killed in an apparent car bomb blast on a major street in Somalia’s capital late on Friday, police said, just hours after the US military confirmed that a recent airstrike had killed a high-level Al Shabaab extremist commander blamed for deadly attacks in Mogadishu.
Captain Mohamed Hussein said the blast occurred on Maka Almukarramah road in Mogadishu and the two victims were pedestrians.
The exact target was unknown.
Five other people were injured, Hussein said, adding that security forces had been on high alert after tipoffs of a possible attack by the Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab.
Most of Mogadishu’s major roads were blocked and cars were being searched by soldiers before the blast.
The US military earlier Friday confirmed that Shabaab commander Ali Mohamed Hussein had been killed in an airstrike last weekend in southern Somalia.
Also known as Ali Jabal, he had been blamed for a number of deadly attacks in Mogadishu and was the highest-level Shabaab commander killed this year.
The Somalia-based Shabaab, the deadliest extremist group in Africa, often targets the capital with deadly bombings in high-profile areas such as hotels and military checkpoints.