Nearly a dozen people have died and five others have been injured in a car bomb attack carried out in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, local officials say.

The bombing was apparently meant to target a convoy of vehicles carrying Somali officials on a busy road junction in central Mogadishu on Sunday. At least 11 people died in the blast.

Witnesses and local officials said that after the bombing gunfire was also heard in the Kilometer 4 neighborhood of Mogadishu, which is the capital’s commercial and administrative hub.

The bomb attack was carried out in an area that is about 100 meters away from the Turkish Embassy.

On April 2, a bomb explosion targeted the headquarters of Dahabshiil bank in Mogadishu, ripping through Somalia’s leading money transfer agency.

The bomb had exploded outside the headquarters of the bank, hours after members of al-Shabab had ordered the company to cease operations in areas under their control.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.

Somalia generates a high number of refugees and internally-displaced persons in the world.