Two people were said to have been killed and 18 were injured in the early hours Saturday
in southwestern Somali town of Baidoa in a mortar attack by suspected
Shabaab jihadists, a senior official said.
“Shabaab militants fired mortar shells late last night,
striking different neighborhoods in Baidoa,” the governor of Bay region,
Abdirashid Abdullahi, told AFP.
“The casualty number reached about 20, two of them died
and eighteen others were hospitalized, five of them with minor injuries.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the
Shabaab, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group blamed for a string of bloody attacks in
Somalia and neighbouring Kenya.
Witnesses told AFP that most of the shells landed in
civilian areas close to Baidoa’s airport, where the biggest Ethiopian base in
the AMISOM mission is located.
AMISOM — the African Union Mission in Somalia — is tasked
with shoring up Somalia’s internationally-backed but fragile government.
“There were several blasts near the airport but most of
them landed (on) houses occupied by civilians, several people died and others
wounded”, Musdhaf sheik Mumin, a resident said.
The Shabaab were forced out of the capital, Mogadishu,
five years ago but continue to carry out regular attacks on military,
government and civilian targets in their battle to overthrow the
internationally-backed administration.
This year is considered critical for the group, which is
eager to disrupt an expected change of government leadership due in the coming
months.
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