Car bomb hits police compound in Mogadishu

Feb 17, 2012, 12:35 GMT

Mogadishu - A car bomb exploded in a police compound in Mogadishu on Friday, killing an unknown number of civilians and officers, witnesses and a government official said.

The official said attackers believed to be from Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab targeted a compound near the strategic KM4 junction in the Somali capital.

Al-Shabaab has stepped up its campaign of suicide attacks since it pulled its forces out of Mogadishu in August last year under pressure from African Union (AU) peacekeepers backing the government.

In recent weeks the AU force, known as AMISOM, has taken the fight outside the capital for the first time.

The UN agency for refugees (UNHCR) said more than 7,200 Somalis who had set up temporary camps to escape last year's UN-declared famine had been forced this week to flee their refuge in Afgoye, just outside Mogadishu, due to fighting.

The insurgents have been battling to oust the internationally backed government since early 2007.

The conflict and drought, which the UN downgraded from famine status this year due to good harvests, have displaced more than 1.3 million people within Somalia and forced over 900,000 to flee the country, UNHCR said.