(By Estera Popowska)
A Somali police official has said gunmen attacked offices of higher education ministry in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, AFP reported. The gunmen reportedly used huge explosion from a car bomb followed by heavy fighting in an ongoing attack. “A car loaded with explosives rammed the gate and there is gunfire inside the building of the ministry,” police official Mohamed Dahir said.

AFP says witness Idil Malim reported seeing several dead bodies. “There were several people lying dead at the scene,” he told AFP, although police said that with the attack continuing they could not confirm casualties.

Although no group has come out yet to claim responsibility, Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels are well known for staging regular attacks in the capital as part of their fight against the country's internationally-backed government and African Union forces supporting it.

Somalia has been unstable since the collapse of Siad Barre's hardline regime in 1991, and the country's new government is being supported by a 22,000-strong African Union force that includes troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda( Source: AFP)