Mayor of the Somali capital, Abdirahman Omar Osman, was injured on Wednesday after what is suspected to be a suicide attack at the Banadir administration headquarters in Mogadishu.

Seven officials were killed in the said attack which happened moments after the United Nations, UN, envoy to Somalia, James Swan, left the premises.

Swan had met with Mayor Omar Osman and other officials of the capital for talks. His office has since issued a stern statement condemning the incident.

According to further reports, security briefings had preempted that such an attack was imminent. Authorities are still probing how today’s incident breached all security protocols.

One report also confirmed that gunmen had fired mortars at the presidential palace earlier in the day.

Al-Shabaab confirmed that they were behind the attack. Somalia continues to suffer from the impact of insurgency waged by the Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

The insurgents have routinely launched attacks in parts of the capital using suicide bombs and improvised explosive devices, IEDs, which have often claimed lives and led to destruction of property.

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