Somali: Suicide Bomber Kills Seven In Tea Shop

On Friday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a tea shop in Somalia's capital, killing at least seven people, a witness and medical professionals at the scene affirmed. 

Five people have died, according to the police.

The al Shabaab organisation, which has ties to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the assault in a statement published on its Arabic news outlet Shahada News Agency, the SITE Intelligence Group said on Friday.

It listed 11 people as dead and 18 as injured; its estimates of attack casualties frequently diverge from official ones.

Witnesses added that the shop is frequented by the military and that the blast happened on Friday afternoon near a checkpoint on a road going to the parliament and the president's office.

Seven people were confirmed deceased and up to eight people were injured, according to a witness and medical workers on the site.

The police spokesperson, Sadik Ali, stated that the explosion left five persons dead and six others injured and that the bomber was a member of the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab.

"He killed five people who were all drinking tea. The suicide bomber was one of the Kharijite terrorists," Ali said in a statement, using the term the government uses to refer to the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group.

"I have counted and helped transport seven dead people and six others wounded, most of them soldiers," Ahmed Ali, a witness at the scene of the explosion, told Reuters.

In June, 54 Ugandan troops were slain at their base southwest of Mogadishu by al Shabaab, a group that wants to overthrow the government and impose its rigid version of Islamic law.