Little remains of a car bomb that exploded outside the Somali parliament building in Mogadishu on Saturday, July 5.

Story highlights

A car bombing in the Somali capital kills 6 and injures 12

The blast happened near the national parliament building in Mogadishu

Two children are among the dead

The terrorist group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack

Mogadishu, Somalia CNN  — 

A terrorist attack at the national Parliament building in the Somali capital killed six people and injured 12 more Saturday, authorities said.

The fatalities in the Mogadishu car bombing included two children, three police officers and one of the attackers, police spokesman Col. Qasim Ahmed Roble said.

Seven members of security forces were among those injured, said Ali Hajji, a Somali policeman at the scene.

But Hajji said the the number of dead and injured could have been much higher.

“Our brave soldiers intercepted today a car loaded with explosives near the Parliament and it went off before it reached its target.”

The militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. The group claims it killed “dozens of police members and wounded many others in the attack.”

“We will keep attacking government buildings everywhere in the country,” Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab said in a statement.

Al-Shabaab is an al Qaeda-linked Islamist terror group based in Somalia.

It also claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a Nigerian mall last fall that killed 67 people and wounded 200.

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Omar Nor reported from Mogadishu and CNN’s Shelby Lin Erdman wrote this story from Atlanta.