In Somalia: Islamist mortar attack kills four in capital

"We pounded mortar shells on the so-called presidential palace," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military spokesman, told Reuters.

play A Somali man injured in a mortar attack is carried on a stretcher by relatives at Darul Shifa Hospital in the capital Mogadishu February 25, 2016. 

The Somali Islamist group al Shabaab killed four people and injured eight others on Thursday in a mortar attack near the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu, police and a spokesman for the group said.

The group had targeted the palace but the mortars went off some distance away, ending up about 300 metres from the nearby house of parliament.

"We pounded mortar shells on the so-called presidential palace," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military spokesman, told Reuters.

Major Mohamed Nur, a Somali police officer, confirmed the number of dead and injured.

The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab frequently targets government buildings, hotels and security forces in Mogadishu in its bid to overthrow the Western-backed government. Somalia is struggling to emerge from two decades of chaos.