Nine people died and several were injured on Wednesday in a double car bomb attack in the Somali city of Mahas, security sources and witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
The attack, blamed on radical Shebab Islamists, took place in this town in Hiran province, where a vast offensive against Islamist insurgents led by clan militias and the Somali army began several months ago.
“Terrorists attacked the city of Mahas this morning with vehicles loaded with explosives. They were targeting a civilian area and we confirmed that nine people, all civilians, were killed in the two blasts,” said Abdullahi Adan, a local security official.
Witnesses contacted by AFP said the explosions occurred near a restaurant next to a district administration building in Mahas.
“I saw the bodies of nine civilians, including women and children. It was a horrible attack,” said Adan Hassan, a witness.
A police commander in the city of Mahas, Osman Nur, said “innocent civilians” were killed in the two blasts and accused Shebab of targeting civilians after they were defeated by the government offensive.
The Shebab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, has been fighting the internationally supported federal government since 2007. Driven out of Somalia’s major cities in 2011-2012, it remains firmly entrenched in large rural areas.
On October 29, two car bombs exploded minutes apart in the capital Mogadishu, killing 121 people and injuring 333 others, in the deadliest attack in five years in the Horn of Africa country.
A triple attack in the central city of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiran province, also killed 30 people, including local officials, in early October, and at least 21 guests at a Mogadishu hotel were killed in August.
Source: TSF
