Mogadishu, March 06: At least 70 Somali troops have been killed by two car bombs that detonated near two government security installations in the capital, according to a report.
The twin car bombs targeted the government training facilities for security forces, located in southern Mogadishu’s Industrial Road district, on Saturday.
About 160 Somali soldiers also sustained injuries in the powerful blasts, the Media correspondent in Mogadishu reported.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The militant group has been fighting the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for the past three years.
Somali Minister of Information, Post and Telecommunications Abdulkareem Jama confirmed the incidents, but rejected the alleged death toll.
Jama said only the bombers were killed in the attacks, adding that African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops and Somali government forces suffered no casualties.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in the fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somalia. More than 300,000 IDPs are sheltering in Mogadishu alone.
Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions on makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
——–Agencies