Suicide truck bombing kills 13 and injures dozens in Somalia: police

A suicide bomber has killed 13 people and wounded dozens more in central Somalia 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 Saturday's blast in the town of Beledweyne in the 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, said.

"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 Shabab militants.

The militants 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.

Three month extension of AU troops

An African Union (AU) force deployed in Somalia in 2007 with a six-month mandate but still remains on the ground. The government is now seeking to delay a planned reduction of foreign troops by three months.

UN resolutions call for the African Union Transition in Somalia (ATMIS) force to be reduced to zero by the end of next year, handing over security to the Somali army and police.

Somali troops launched a major offensive against the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabab in central Somalia in August last year. They joined forces with local clan militias in an operation backed by the AU force and US air strikes.

Somalia's national security adviser recently wrote to the United Nations requesting a 90-day delay to the planned pullout of 3,000 AU troops by the end of September.

In the letter, he said the government had "managed to re-liberate towns, villages and critical supply routes" during its offensive but had suffered "several significant setbacks" since late August.

"This unforeseen turn of events has stretched our military forces thin, exposed vulnerabilities in our frontlines and necessitated a thorough reorganisation to ensure we maintain our momentum in countering the Al Shabab threat," the letter said.