Nineteen people have been killed in twin car bombs in central Somalia claimed by Al-Shabaab, a local militia commander in the Hiran region said.
Two cars packed with explosives were detonated simultaneously in Mahas, a town in Hiran where a major attack was launched last year against Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups.
The attack was claimed by Al-Shabaab, which has been fighting the fragile central government for years, according to monitoring group SITE.
“Nineteen people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were killed in the explosion,” said Mohamed Moalim Adan, the leader of a government-allied community militia in Mahas.
Abdikarim Hassan, a traditional elder in Mahas, said that “almost 20 people were killed in the explosion” and most of them were civilians.
Another community leader, Mohamud Suleyman, said 52 people were injured and “most of them were transported to Mogadishu for treatment.”
Security officials and local leaders said two military bases were targeted in Mahas in retaliation for operations against militants.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility in a statement issued by its media unit, saying fighters had detonated explosives at a military base in Mahas and also attacked another base in Dadan ‘Ad, about 17 kilometers (10 miles) away, according to SITE.
“Terrorists, after being (already) defeated, resorted to desperate targeting of civilians, but this will not stop people’s will to continue defeating them,” said Osman Nur, police commander in Mahas.
‘all out war’
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared “all-out war” against Al-Shabaab, which has waged a bloody insurgency against the internationally-backed federal government for 15 years.
In July, a local clan militia known as “Macawisley” launched an insurgency against Al-Shabaab in central Somalia, and Mohamud sent troops in September to support the fight.
In recent months, the army and militia have retaken areas in the central state of Galmudug and Hirshabelle (where Hiran is located) in an operation backed by US airstrikes and African Union (AU) forces known as ATMIS.
But the insurgents have often retaliated with bloody attacks, underscoring their ability to strike at the heart of Somalia’s cities and military installations despite attacks.
Despite being forced out of the country’s main urban centers about 10 years ago, Al-Shabaab remains in large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia.
On October 29, 121 people in the capital Mogadishu were killed in two car bombings at the education ministry, in the deadliest attack in the troubled Horn of Africa country in five years.
Eight civilians were killed on November 27 in a 21-hour siege at a hotel in Mogadishu popular with politicians and government officials.
A third bomb in October in the town of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiran, killed 30 people including local officials.
And at least 21 people were killed in a Mogadishu hotel siege in August that lasted 30 hours before security forces were able to defeat the militants inside.