Strong blast outside Somali Parliament, one dead

MOGADISHU: A strong blast rocked Somalia's Parliament yesterday, with at least one person killed, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
The blast, believed to be a car bomb set off close to the Parliament, is the latest in a string of attacks in the war-ravaged Somali capital.
A body of a Somali government security official dressed in military uniform could be seen following the explosion.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents have conducted a series of guerrilla style attacks in the capital since pulling out of fixed positions there last year.
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri this week urged all Muslims to support Somalia's Islamist Shebab, who have in recent months suffered several major setbacks with African Union troops wresting several strongholds from them.
The insurgents have vowed to topple newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in September after being chosen by the country's new Parliament, bringing an end to eight years of transitional rule.
An offensive led by the 17,000-strong AU force alongside Somali forces has stripped the Shebab of most of the towns they held.
But analysts have warned the group are still a dangerous force, reverting to guerrilla tactics and carrying out targeted attacks.
Militant leaders are urging people to join militants in Somalia in the battle against African Union troops, which he says have been boosted by US support.
Ayman Al-Zawahri says Somalia's Al-Qaida branch, al-Shabab, should use guerrilla tactics and suicide bombings to wage war.
Somalia had been in chaos for years, ruled by warlords and insurgents bent on creating an Islamic state. The militants, who once controlled nearly all of Mogadishu, have been gone from the capital for more than a year, and in September the African troops booted them out of their last urban stronghold, the port city of Kismayo.
In his seven-minute audio message posted late Tuesday on militant websites, al-Zawahri says the loss of Kismayo came after “clear, direct and flagrant support from the Americans.”