11 killed in suicide bombing in Somalia

11 people including a local official have been killed in a suicide bombing in Somalia.

Witnesses say a suicide bomber detonated a device at the entrance to a government building in southern Somalia.

District Commissioner Abdillahi Ali Waafow was killed in the attack on Wednesday. The commissioner's bodyguards, and traditional elders were also killed.

Secretary-general of the Marka town administration in the Lower Shabelle region, Mohamed Osmaan Yariisoow, told The Associated Press by phone: “Minutes after we had concluded a meeting we had at the district headquarters and were on our way out, we found an unknown man approached us and blew himself up."

Al-Shabab, a Somalia-based extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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