At least five people were killed Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside a busy restaurant in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
A VOA reporter on the scene says two women were among those who died in the blast.
A doctor with the city's ambulance service, Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Aden, tells VOA's Somali Service that another six people were wounded in the explosion, and says the death toll could rise.
The targeted restaurant, located near the Hotel Central, is popular with employees at Somalia's presidential palace.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion fell on militant group al-Shabab, which has carried out numerous suicide attacks in the city.
On Monday al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least seven people and wounded eight others in northern Somalia. The attacker Monday targeted a minibus carrying staffers of the U.N. Children's Fund in the town of Garowe, as they traveled from their guest houses to their office.
A source close to the U.N. in Garowe told VOA that a man climbed on the bus and detonated explosives strapped to his waist.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says the attack shows al-Shabab is not interested in the future of Somalia. He said that as the Somali National Army and the country's international partners help bring Somalia back under control, al-Shabab is "lashing out, thrashing in its death throes."
Local police said the dead in Monday's attack included four foreigners, two Somalis and the bomber. A reporter for VOA in Garowe says the foreigners included two Kenyans, a Ugandan and one Afghan, all of whom worked for UNICEF.
That bombing was al-Shabab's third deadly attack against international personnel in the span of three days. On Sunday, al-Shabab militants killed three African Union peacekeepers from Burundi and wounded several other soldiers in the southern town of Lego.
An attack Saturday on a Kenyan convoy killed three soldiers and wounded eight others while they were on a patrol in the Delbio area of Lower Jubba region.
Al-Shabab is attempting to overthrow the Somali government and establish an Islamic state.
Earlier this month, al-Shabab staged an attack on Kenya's Garissa University College, killing 148 people. Al-Shabab said that attack was revenge for Kenyan military action in neighboring Somalia.
Somalia's government has placed bounties on the heads of 11 al-Shabab leaders, including the militant group's top leader and alleged mastermind of the massacre in Kenya, Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin.
