A suicide car bomb detonated in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, killing eight people on Saturday.  

Qatar expressed its strong condemnation and denunciation of a deadly attack at a checkpoint in the Hamar Jajab district in Somalia that killed at least 8 people on Saturday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) reiterated Qatar’s firm position in rejecting violence and terrorism, regardless of motives and reasons.

Doha expressed its condolences for the families of the victims, the government, and the people of Somalia, and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Qatar FM meets Syrian opposition as decade-long crisis continues

That statement was issued on Saturday, just hours after a suicide car bomb killed at least eight people in Mogadishu at a street junction near the president’s palace.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which was targeting a convoy going into the palace.

Police spokesperson Abdifatah Aden Hassan said the number of casualties could be higher, since some of the victims had been taken away by their relatives at the scene of the blast.

“Al Shabaab is behind the blast. They killed eight people including a soldier and a mother and two children. Al Shabaab massacres civilians,” he said.

Among those killed was an adviser of women and human rights affairs in Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble’s office, Hibaq Abukar, according to government spokesperson Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu.

The al Qaeda-allied Al-Shabaab has been fighting in Somalia for over a decade to oust the nation’s central government in order to establish its own rule based on its rigid interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Follow Doha News on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube