A famous Somali journalist who was a critic of the Islamist terrorist organization al-Shabab was assassinated in Mogadishu by a suicide bomber.

Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, commonly known as Abdiaziz Afrika, was as he was leaving a restaurant in the city soon after lunchtime when he was attacked.

Two additional persons nearby were hurt and sent to the hospital as a result of the explosion.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed to have targeted the journalist, who worked for Radio Mogadishu.

According to a story released on the official Radio Mogadishu website, citing police sources, the bomber exploded a device in front of a car at the restaurant where Guled was accompanied by the director of Somali National Television and a chauffeur.

Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble issued a statement in which he expressed his sympathies to Guled's family.

"Abdiaziz was a hardworking journalist and national hero who worked for his country, his people, and his religion with courage and relentlessness," he said.

Guled was well-known for his talks with detained al-Shabab detainees, and his broadcasts drew enormous listeners regularly.

Al-Shabab, which translates as "The Youth" in Arabic, is an extremist Islamist militia that has been fighting UN-backed government soldiers for more than a decade.

The jihadists held Mogadishu until 2011 when they were driven out by African Union soldiers, but they still retain territory in the countryside and carry out periodic assaults against the government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

It promotes the stringent Saudi-inspired Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, although the majority of Somalis are Sufis. It has enforced a strict interpretation of Sharia in regions under its authority, including stoning women convicted of adultery and amputating thieves' hands.