Updated

Al Shabaab claimed responsibility Tuesday for an assault that left 10 people dead at the ministry of higher education office complex in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu.

A spokesman for the terror group said it was responsible for the attack, Sky News reports.

Police have since secured the office complex, Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior police officer, told The Associated Press.

The attackers stormed the ministry of higher education after a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle at the gate of the facility, opening the way for gunmen to enter, said Hussein.

Omar Mohamed, a trader who works near the scene, told Reuters that he was thrown off his chair from the explosion and attackers sprayed gunfire at security forces in a battle over the complex.

Smoke could be seen rising over the compound. Security forces rushed to the scene and ambulances ferried wounded victims to hospitals.

Outside the walled compound, public buses sat abandoned in the street, the BBC reports.

Ten people died in the attack, said government spokesman Ridwan Haji Abdiweli.

Police Colonel Hussein Ibrahim told Reuters that African Union and a government soldier were among the dead, along with three civilians and two Al Shabaab attackers.

The assault on the walled compound -- which also houses other government ministries -- is the latest attack by Al Shabaab, which is maintaining a series of attacks in the capital on government targets and the African Union forces who are supporting the government.

On Tuesday, Kenya’s government said the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya has become a recruitment center for Al Shabaab, whose gunmen killed 148 people at the country's Garissa College University on April 2.

An intelligence source has told Fox News that Al Qaeda in Yemen is now providing guidance to the Al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia on how major plots, like the university attack, can support their regional ambitions.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.