Al-Shabaab suicide attack kills 7 in Somalia

Al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda, has been waging an insurgency against the Somali state for 15 years.

A suicide attack claimed by the Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab killed at least seven people and injured nine others in Mogadishu on Sunday, the army and eyewitnesses told AFP.

A "desperate terrorist" blew himself up on Sunday morning near a line of new recruits who were enrolling at the Nacnac military base in the south of the Somali capital, local military commander Abdullahi Adan told AFP.

"Seven people were killed and nine others injured," he said.

"I was close to the site of the explosion, it was huge and I could see dead and injured people," eyewitness Ahme Gobe told AFP.

Another eyewitness, Asha Omar, spoke of seeing at least 10 people taken away by ambulance.

Al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda that has been waging an insurgency against the Somali state for 15 years, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Its fighters killed at least 19 civilians in central Somalia earlier this month.