It is said that two trucks were driven to a military camp in the central Somali region of Hiiraan on Monday morning and taken there to be blown up. The third explosion happened a few hours later. The Islamist Al-Shabaab militia claimed responsibility for the crimes on its propaganda radio station Andalus.
The number of victims could still rise
A local police officer told the German Press Agency: “These attacks are the worst attacks in Beledweyne in years. The number of deaths is likely to be significantly higher.” According to the information, the health minister of Hirshabelle province, Sakariye Hurre, was among the dead.
Since the beginning of September, the Somali army, with the support of armed clans, has been gaining large amounts of territory against the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab, which rules the region. The terrorists repeatedly carry out attacks on the civilian population in the country on the Horn of Africa, destroying houses and wells.
The attack came days after senior al-Shabaab official Abdullahi Nadir was killed in a US drone strike in the south of the country. The US had put a $3 million bounty on Nadir’s head.
haz/hf (dpa, afp, rtr)
