Al-Shabaab takes responsibility for bomb that killed at least 30 people
by Abdi Sheikh, Feisal Omar and Edmund Blair,
2016-02-29 10:07:07.0
MOGADISHU — Somalia’s al-Shabaab Islamist group bombed a busy junction and a nearby restaurant in the town of Baidoa on Sunday, killing at least 30 people, police and the group said.
Al-Shabaab often carries out such suicide attacks in the capital and elsewhere in its bid to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government. The group wants to impose its strict version of Islamic rule in the Horn of Africa nation.
"The restaurant and the junction were very busy," Police Maj Bilow Nurr said from Baidoa, which lies about 245km northwest of Mogadishu.
Police Col Abdi Osman said the death toll was 30, with 40 others injured. A hospital officials said many of the bodies it received were charred beyond recognition.
A police officer said a suicide car bomb blew up at the junction while a second blast — possibly a bomb that had been planted or a suicide bomber — struck the restaurant.
"We targeted government officials and forces," al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters, adding there was a police station nearby.
Ismail Olad said the two locations were full of civilians and security forces. "I heard a huge crash at the busy junction and as I ran I heard another blast at a restaurant ahead of me. The whole place was covered by smoke," he said.
The blasts followed a car bomb attack in Mogadishu near a park and hotel on Friday that killed 14 people, a police officer said. He said three militants from the al-Shabaab group were also killed.
Reuters
Residents gather to view the damage at the scene of a car bomb attack near Somali Youth League Hotel, known as SYL hotel, in Hamarweyne district in Mogadishu, on Saturday. Police say a similar bomb was responsible for the deaths of at least 30 in Baidoa on Sunday. REUTERS/FEISAL OMAR
MOGADISHU — Somalia’s al-Shabaab Islamist group bombed a busy junction and a nearby restaurant in the town of Baidoa on Sunday, killing at least 30 people, police and the group said.
Al-Shabaab often carries out such suicide attacks in the capital and elsewhere in its bid to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government. The group wants to impose its strict version of Islamic rule in the Horn of Africa nation.
"The restaurant and the junction were very busy," Police Maj Bilow Nurr said from Baidoa, which lies about 245km northwest of Mogadishu.
Police Col Abdi Osman said the death toll was 30, with 40 others injured. A hospital officials said many of the bodies it received were charred beyond recognition.
A police officer said a suicide car bomb blew up at the junction while a second blast — possibly a bomb that had been planted or a suicide bomber — struck the restaurant.
"We targeted government officials and forces," al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters, adding there was a police station nearby.
Ismail Olad said the two locations were full of civilians and security forces. "I heard a huge crash at the busy junction and as I ran I heard another blast at a restaurant ahead of me. The whole place was covered by smoke," he said.
The blasts followed a car bomb attack in Mogadishu near a park and hotel on Friday that killed 14 people, a police officer said. He said three militants from the al-Shabaab group were also killed.
Reuters
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