Mogadishu: In a suicide attack on Tuesday in southern Somalia, at least five people were killed and 11 others, including a regional governor, were wounded, a police commander told AFP.

According to Hussein Adan, the area police commander, an explosives-laden vehicle crashed into a guest house housing government officials in Bardera, which is located 450 kilometres (279 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu.

Five security guards were killed in the explosion, which destroyed the majority of the building, according to Adan. He added that eleven people, including the governor Ahmed Bulle Gared, were hurt.

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Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the militant organisation Al-Shabab continues to be a strong force in the unstable Horn of Africa country despite international efforts to weaken its leadership.

Witnessing the attack on Tuesday, Mohamud Saney claimed that they had "never heard anything as big as the explosion. The earth shook like an earthquake as a result. For roughly 15 years, Al-Shabab has waged a brutal insurgency against the weak nation's central government.

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In an operation supported by US airstrikes and an African Union force known as ATMIS, the Somali army and local clan militias have recently taken back some territory from the militants.

Despite the advances made by the pro-government forces, the militants have persisted in showcasing their capacity to retaliate against military and civilian targets with lethal force.

Two car bomb explosions at the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu in October resulted in 121 fatalities, making it the deadliest Al-Shabab attack since the offensive's inception last year.

The UN stated last month that 2022 was the deadliest year for Somalian civilians since 2017 in large part due to an increase in the militant group's mass casualty attacks.

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Al-Shabab is still well-entrenched in some rural areas of central and southern Somalia despite having been driven out of Mogadishu and other significant urban centres more than ten years ago.