Mogadishu, Sep 8 (IANS): At least 12 people were killed and 22 others injured Monday when a suicide car bomb hit an African Union (AU) troops convoy on the outskirts of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, officials and witnesses said.

The explosives-laden vehicle drove into the AU peacekeeping troops' convoy as they went on the road to the western town of Afgoye, killing and wounding civilians on a minibus plying on the road.

"All the 12 people killed are civilians and 22 others were injured after the suicide car bomb exploded," Mohamed Sidi, an official, told reporters.

Witnesses said the suicide vehicle was a van packed with explosives which hit one of the armoured vehicles of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on the road between Mogadishu and Afgoye, some 20 km from the capital.

Witnesses said some of the injured include AMISOM soldiers, but most were civilians in the minibus and passers-by.

"I saw two or three soldiers slightly injured in the huge explosion from the van, but most of the injured and all of the dead were civilians nearby," Ahmed Yusuf, a resident told Xinhua.

This is the first attack after the killing of Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane last week following a US drone strike in the southern Somali region of Lower Shabelle.

The radical group vowed to launch revenge attacks against Somali government and AMISOM targets, but it has so far not claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

The Al Qaeda-linked group named Ahmad Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah, as the new leader of Al Shabaab and renewed its allegiance to Al Qeada following the death of Godane.