Mogadishu residents searched for their belongings in the debris after two twin car bombs killed 18 people in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
Officials say the attack was led by the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, but security forces shot dead five assailants, the first car bomb went off after militants breached a checkpoint near the president’s residence by shooting at security personnel.
The second blast was a car bomb parked in front of a hotel away from the palace.
In October, more than 500 people were killed in twin bomb blasts in Mogadishu. The bomb attacks were the deadliest since al Shabaab began an insurgency in 2007. Al Shabaab did not claim responsibility for that incident.
