At least nine people were killed and more wounded Monday in a bomb attack targeting a van carrying United Nations staff members to a compound in Somalia. Al-Shabaab militants were suspected, a police officer told NBC News, and later a U.N. spokesman said that the Islamist group had claimed responsibility for the blast in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland. Images posted on social media showed a blood-spattered white minivan with its windows shattered and roof blown off. Nicholas Kay, the U.N. Special Representative for Somalia, said he was "shocked and appalled by loss of life."
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