Mogadishu bombing: At least 10 killed in suicide blast near presidential palace and SYL Hotel in Somalia

Al-Shabaab militant group claims responsibility for latest terror attack to hit capital

A soldier helps Somali politician Abdalla Bos Ahmed after he was injured by a blast near the presidential palace in Mogadishu yesterday (AP)

A suicide bomber has detonated a lorry packed with explosives near Somalia’s presidential palace in the latest terror attack to strike the country’s capital.

The blast was believed to target politicians and officials attending a security conference at the Somali Youth League (SYL) hotel, in a heavily guarded are near the palace in Mogadishu.

Captain Mohamed Hussein, a senior police officer, said the lorry exploded during a morning traffic jam on Tuesday, incinerating nearby cars and damaging nearby hotels frequented by ministers and business executives.

At least 10 people were killed, including soldiers and civilians, and 30 wounded according to police.

Soldiers near a building destroyed by a blast near the presidential palace in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 30 August (AP)

Government ministers and journalists were said to be among those taken to the Medina Hospital for treatment as rescue workers collected bodies from the rubble-strewn streets.

The explosion was heard across Mogadishu and smoke was seen billowing over the city centre, with the blast tearing into blast walls around hotels and blowing roofs off nearby houses.

“Security forces tried to stop the bomber who used back roads before he sped through checkpoints near the presidential palace and detonated the bomb,” said police spokesman Colonel Ali Nur.

“He reached near the gate of the state house with flat tyres.”

Al-Shabaab, a Somalian terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted the SYL Hotel and hailing several deaths.

It was the second time militants had attacked the same hotel – one of many to be hit by a stream of bombings and shootings in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab fighters attacked military bases housing government and African Union troops south-west of Mogadishu on Monday, and extremists killed 10 people at a popular beach restaurant last week.

In July, two al-Shabaab suicide bombers detonated car bombs outside the office of the UN's mine-clearing agency and an army checkpoint near the African Union's main base in Mogadishu, killing 13.

The previous month, extremist gunmen stormed the Nasa-Hablod hotel, killing at least 14, and just a fortnight before extremist gunmen killed 15 victims including two members of parliament at the Ambassador Hotel.

Al-Shabaab is fighting an insurgency to impose Islamist rule in Somalia and other parts of East Africa, battling security forces and the 22,000-strong “Amisom” force that drove militants out of Mogadishu in 2011.

Its members have continued to launch a series of terror attacks and ambushes against civilians, politicians and military installations across the country.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office warns of specific threats against Westerners by the group, as well as “very frequent” attacks in Somalia that could occur at any time