Mogadishu , Somalia ( CNN ) Gunmen stormed the headquarters of Somalia 's education ministry in the country 's capital on Tuesday after a suicide car bombing , a two-pronged attack that killed at least 12 people and injured 16 others , officials said . The Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab is responsible for the attack in the center of Mogadishu , group spokesman Abu Musab said . The attack began when two suicide bombers detonated their car at the entrance of the two-story building housing the Ministry of Education , Culture & Higher Education , Somali National Security Ministry spokesman Mohamed Yusuf said . Five gunmen then entered the building , shooting people inside , Yusuf said . Security guards at the building , and , later , Somali special forces battled the gunmen inside , witnesses said . Soldiers from the African Union , who are in Somalia in part to support the government 's fight against Al-Shabaab , teamed up with Somali security forces to shoot and kill the five attackers , Yusuf said . The attack killed four Somali soldiers and eight civilians , according to Yusuf . The special forces helped people out of the building while the attack was underway , city police Capt . Mohamud Abdi said . Ali Hassan , a man who was helped from the building , confirmed that a rescue operation was happening inside . Somalia-based Al-Shabaab has battled the country 's government for years , aiming to overthrow it and turn the nation into a fundamentalist Islamic state . In recent years , the group also launched terror attacks beyond Somalia 's borders , sometimes targeting non-Muslims . What is Al-Shabaab , and what does it want ? Earlier this month , Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed Garissa University College in neighboring Kenya , killing 147 people , mostly students . The terrorists separated Christians from Muslims and shot those who could n't recite verses from the Quran , witnesses said . In Somalia , Al-Shabaab has been blamed for attacks that have killed international aid workers , journalists , civilian leaders and African Union peacekeepers . Late last month , Al-Shabaab militants detonated a bomb and sprayed bullets at a Mogadishu hotel , leaving at least 20 people dead in an attack that lasted a number of hours . Among those killed was Yusuf Mohamed Ismail Bari-Bari , Somalia 's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva , Switzerland . Journalist Omar Nor reported from Mogadishu . CNN 's Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta .
Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack . The group has been fighting to overthrow Somalia's government since 2006 and is considered a terrorist organization by many Western countries. Assailants storm the building and engage in a gunbattle with guards .