Nine people were killed and several others injured in a double car bomb blast in the village of Mahas in central Somalia on Tuesday morning, security sources and witnesses said.
The attack, attributed to radical Islamists Shebab, was carried out at this location in Hiran province, where a massive offensive against Islamist insurgents led by clan militias and the Somali army began a few months ago.
“The terrorists (Shebab, ed.) attacked the city of Mahas this morning with vehicles loaded with explosives. They targeted a civilian area and we have confirmed that nine people, all civilians, died in the two blasts,” Abdullahi Adan, a local security official, told AFP by phone.
According to witnesses contacted by AFP, the blasts happened near a restaurant near a Mahas district administrative building.
“I saw the bodies of nine civilians, including women and children. It was a terrible attack,” said Adan Hassan, a witness.
A Mahas city police commander, Osman Nur, said “innocent civilians” were killed in the two blasts and accused al-Shabaab of targeting civilians after they were defeated by the government offensive.
The Shebab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, has been fighting the German government since 2007 with support from the international community. They were expelled from the country’s main cities in 2011-2012 and remain firmly established in large rural areas.
In early July, local clans in Hiran province revolted against the Shebab. Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud’s government, which has promised “all-out war” to the Islamist group, sent the army in September to support the militias known as “macawisley”.
This offensive, supported by African Union forces in Somalia (Atmis) and American airstrikes, has enabled the recapture of large areas in two states in the center of the country, Hirshabelle – where Hiran Province is located – and Galmudug.
But the insurgents have regularly retaliated with bloody attacks, underscoring their ability to strike at the heart of Somali cities and military installations.
On October 29, two car bombs detonated within minutes in the capital Mogadishu, killing 121 and injuring 333 others in the deadliest attack in the Horn of Africa country in five years.
A triple attack in Beledweyne (centre), the capital of Hiran province, in early October also killed 30 people, including local officials, and at least 21 guests at a Mogadishu hotel were killed in a spectacular 30-hour attack earlier in August August.