Somalia: 3 killed in Blasts in Mogadishu and Bosaso

MOGADISHU, Somalia - At least three people, including a police officer, were killed, and several wounded in separate explosions in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and Bosaso city, Garowe Online reports.

Eyewitnesses told GO that two civilians died in a blast resulted from a remote-controlled landmine near the former Gahayr University campus in Mogadishu's Hodan district on Sunday morning.

A woman was among those killed in the explosion. It was not immediately clear the exact target of the attack, but, a witness said a Somali military vehicle was passing in the area at the time of the incident.

In a separate incident, a policeman was killed in a grenade attack on a Traffic Police Headquarters in Bosaso, the port city and commercial hub of Somalia's northeastern semi-autonomous Puntland region.

Local residents said assailants hurled two grenades at the compound during the night and fled the scene before the arrival of state security forces who launched an investigation into the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack which was the latest in a string of bombings and assassinations in the seaside city in the past few years, some claimed by Al-Shabab and pro-ISIL militants.

Officials did not comment on the attack that highlights the dual challenges facing Puntland security forces from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab and the growing presence of fighters linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. 

GAROWE ONLINE