At least three people were killed Friday when a suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy of African Union troops in the Somali capital, police said.

"Three people are confirmed dead, and three others injured," said police official Ahmed Muktar, who was near the scene of the blast, the latest in a string of explosions in the dangerous capital.

Somalia's Shebab insurgents killed at least one person Tuesday when they set off a homemade bomb in the capital's main market, busy with shoppers preparing for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Shebab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab said its fighters had set off an improvised explosive device targeting security officials in Mogadishu's Bakara market, claiming to have killed three officials and wounded three others.

Hundreds of migrants were intercepted by Italian, Libyan and Maltese border guards on Tuesday on several boats leaving from Libya, a day after Pope Francis called for more solidarity with the refugees.

Italy's coast guard said in a statement it had scrambled cargo vessels that were in the area to help out during the nighttime operation to rescue 303 migrants on three boats that were in difficulty.

Battles between rival warlords in Somalia's key southern port city of Kismayo killed at least 71 people last month, U.N. officials said Friday, clashes Mogadishu has accused Kenyan troops of encouraging.

"Recent fierce fighting... continues to have a profound impact on civilians and humanitarian aid work in the Lower Juba region," the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO) said, adding the clashes also left more than 300 injured in June.

At least five people have been killed in clashes between rival Somali warlords fighting for control of the southern port city of Kismayo, residents said Saturday.

Gunmen from the Ras Kamboni militia of former Islamist warlord Ahmed Madobe -- who last month appointed himself "president" of the southern Jubaland region -- battled on Friday forces loyal to Bare Hirale, a former Somali defense minister who also leads a powerful militia.

Somalia's leaders vowed Thursday that progress would continue despite fresh threats by Islamist Shebab insurgents, a day after they staged a deadly attack on the U.N. compound as a "warning" to the world body and "infidels".

Eleven people were killed when the seven-man team of suicide commandos from the al-Qaida-linked Shebab insurgents shot and blasted their way into the U.N. compound in Mogadishu Wednesday, before Somali and African Union forces battled their way inside to kill the gunmen.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon is outraged by an attack Wednesday on a U.N. compound in Somalia which left at least eight U.N. staff and contractors dead but the mission will "not be deterred," his spokesman said.

Ban telephoned Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud soon after the attack on the U.N. base in Mogadishu, said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky in a statement.

Somalia's al-Qaida linked Shebab insurgents shot and blasted their way into the United Nations compound in Mogadishu Wednesday, the most serious attack on the UN in the troubled country in recent years.

At least three civilians were killed in the streets outside the compound as Somali and African Union troops forced their way into the complex -- despite the Islamists battling back with heavy gunfire -- to end the hour and an half seige.

A fire which broke out overnight at an Islamic boarding school in Britain is suspected of being a revenge attack for last month's murder of a soldier on a London street, the country's top police officer said Sunday.

Detectives are "working tirelessly" to establish whether the blaze at the Darul Uloom Islamic School in the southeast London suburb of Chislehurst was started deliberately, according to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe.

At least eight people have died in fighting between rival Somali warlords battling for control of the southern port city of Kismayo, witnesses said Saturday.

Gunmen from the Ras Kamboni militia of former Islamist warlord Ahmed Madobe -- recently self-appointed "president" of the southern Jubaland region -- battled against forces loyal to Iftin Hassan Basto, another leader claiming to be president.