Al Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the attack, has waged a three-year insurgency to topple the UN-backed interim government they consider a stooge of the West, restricting its writ to just a few blocks of Mogadishu.

Western spy agencies say the Horn of Africa country has become a haven for foreign jihadists, while critics have accused the government of not doing enough to end the insurgency. “Today we carried out a blessed car bomb attack at the so-called police camp,” al Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told reporters. “This is a warning to our enemies and a pleasure for us.”