MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somali authorities say police on Monday foiled what they described as an attempt to commit a major terrorist attack in Mogadishu with a car bomb, Garowe Online reports.

Police intercepted a car packed with explosives that later went off near a security checkpoint in the vicinity of the busy Digfeer junction in the morning.

This was the latest in such bomb blasts in the seaside city under government control this year.

Initial reports showed the car was headed to the capital, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group planned to use it as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), simply a bomb on wheels.

If detonated in the downtown, the impact would be devastating because explosion would be powerful enough to bring down a story building, according to a security official who spoke to Garowe Online.

No claim of responsibility has yet been made for the thwarted bomb attack in Mogadishu that caused damage on residential houses in the area, but no casualties of deaths or wounds.

With the intensified war against Al-Shabaab in Somalia where AU troops are operating under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), militants have been able to carry out attacks on soft targets.

GAROWE ONLINE