Suicide bomber kills four at Somalia cafe

Scene of the car bomb attack

A suicide bomber killed at least four people in central Somalia on Sunday, a security source said , in an attack claimed by the Al -Qaeda -aligned Shabaab movement.

Mohamed Abdulkarim, a security official in the town of Beledweyne , 300 kilometres ( 190 miles ) north of the capital Mogadishu, said the bomber “detonated himself at a tea shop in front of the regional headquarters and four people died , all of them civilians .”

Thirteen others were wounded , he told AFP .

Witness Osman Adan said there was a “huge blast … there were several dead bodies and wounded people strewn in the area . ”

Shabaab militants claimed Sunday’s attack, which the group said had killed six “soldiers ”, including three serviceman from neighbouring Djibouti .

The Shabaab have sworn to overthrow Somalia’ s fragile government, which is kept in place with international support .

The Shabaab force was pushed out of the capital in August 2011 and lost most of its other bastions in Somalia .

But they still control vast swathes of countryside , from where they launch guerilla operations and suicide attacks, against the capital and against local and international military bases