Suicide truck bomber kills 13 in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Sept 23 (AFP): A suicide bomber killed 13 people and wounded dozens more in central Somalia Saturday after driving a truck packed with explosives towards a security checkpoint, triggering a blast that razed nearby buildings, police said.

Emergency workers used bulldozers to clear the debris as they retrieved bodies and rescued people trapped under rubble after the blast in the town of Beledweyne in Hiran region.

"What has happened here is a heinous act," Abdulahi Ahmed Malim, the governor of Hiran, told reporters at the scene. "This was a disaster today and the damage it has inflicted is not small, it destroyed the whole area," he said.

"We have recovered the dead bodies of 13 people, most of them civilians who stayed nearby," Ahmed Yare Adan, a local police officer, told AFP by phone.

"There are about 45 wounded people admitted in medical facilities... some of these people are seriously wounded and they are all civilians," he said.

The attack came after Somalia's beleaguered government admitted to suffering "several significant setbacks" in its fight against Al-Shabaab militants.

The Islamist fighters have waged an insurgency for over 15 years to overthrow the fragile internationally backed government in Mogadishu.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's bombing.

Police officer Abdukadir Yasin, who rushed to the scene after the blast, said rescuers were pulling wounded victims to safety from under the rubble.