International

The blast near Waberi police station along the busy Maka al Mukarramah road may have been a suicide bomber, Captain Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press.

The blast occurred amid a traffic jam while soldiers were searching cars at a nearby intersection.

A Reuters reporter at the scene of the blast counted four bodies lying on the ground. Photographs taken by Reuters showed three destroyed cars on the road, with two still burning.

Most of the victims were civilians. The exact target of the blast remains unclear. Somalia's Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said no such blast had occurred in the capital for a month.

At the scene of the blast, rescue workers and civilians carried bloodied bodies and injured victims to hospitals.