Suicide attack on Somali market kills 39
The death toll could rise from Sunday's attack. The car bomber wounded more than 50 others when he blew himself up at a market in the capital Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab militants were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 but continue to launch terror attacks inside the Somali capital.
Thirty-nine people were killed and some 50 others wounded when a car laden with explosives ripped through a market in Mogadishu on Sunday, a local official said.
"We carried 39 dead bodies and there were many others injured," Dr Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of the Aamin Ambulance Service said.
Ahmed Abdulle Afrax, the mayor of Wadajir district where the bombing happened, said it was a suicide attack.
A manager at Madina hospital said the facility had taken in 47 injured people.
Witness Abdulle Omar said the market was destroyed.
"I was staying in my shop when a car came in into the market and exploded. I saw more than 20 people lying on the ground. Most of them were dead," he said.
We condemn evil act of terrorism in #Madina market. We'll not be dettered by cowardly violence: our progress is irreversible @M_Farmaajo
— Yusuf Garaad (@MinisterMOFA) February 19, 2017
The assault was the biggest in the Somali capital since the election of new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo earlier this month.
No group has claimed responsibility as yet for the attack. But during last week's handover of power, the Al-Shabaab terrorist group said it fired mortar rounds.
Al-Shabaab is fighting the UN-backed Somali government, and continues to wage a deadly bombing campaign despite losing most of its territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the government.
Civil war has riven Somalia since 1991. Aid agencies warn that a severe drought has placed large swathes of the country at risk of famine.
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