At least 25 dead in Mogadishu mosque blasts

At least 25 people have been killed and scores more injured after two bomb blasts at a mosque in a crowded area of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

Reuters

The explosions went off in the Bakara market area, an Islamist stronghold, while people were assembled in the mosque for midday prayers.

Eyewitnesses described the blasts as the biggest ever in Bakara.

The cause of the blasts is not yet known but members of the Shebab Islamist group claim they were a government attempt to assassinate one of its leaders.

An anonymous Shebab official told the AFP news agency that the blasts targeted its head of mobilisation Sheikh Fu'ad Mohamed Khalaf, better known as Fu'ad Shongole, who was in the mosque.

Another Shebab member, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, said Shongole was "wounded on the right arm but will recover".

"This was an act of terrorism carried out by mercenaries hired by the so-called government of Somalia," he said.

Al Shebab, whose leadership has proclaimed allegiance to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, has been fighting the fragile government and its African Union allies alongside Hezb al-Islam, a smaller Islamist group.