Twin Suicide Bombings Kill at Least 20 as Shabab Violence Intensifies in Somalia
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Version 0 of 1. MOGADISHU, Somalia — Two popular restaurants in a regional capital of Somalia were hit by suicide bombings on Sunday afternoon, killing at least 20 people and injuring at least 60 others, witnesses and officials said. The Shabab, an Islamist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in the city of Baidoa, the capital of both Somalia’s Southwest State and the Bay Region. Witnesses said that a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant across from the Hotel Baidoa around 5 p.m., a time when people gather after work. The restaurant’s outdoor cafe, frequented by government workers and business people, was crowded. The bomber was killed in the explosion. As crowds of people fled, a second suicide bomber set off his explosives in a restaurant about 1,000 feet from the first, the authorities and witnesses said. Both restaurants were in the center of the city, near a traffic intersection known as Afar-Irdoodka. Officials in Baidoa confirmed that 20 people had been killed and 60 others injured. “Thirteen dead bodies were collected by the ambulances and were brought to the hospital,” Abdifatah Ibrahim Hashi, the director of Baidoa Hospital, said in a telephone interview. Seven others died at the hospital from their wounds, he said, adding that 42 people were being treated and another 18 had been released. Among the dead was Hassan Ibrahim, deputy minister for disarmament and militia rehabilitation for Southwest State, according to the governor of the Bay Region, Abdirashid Abdi Abdullahi, who spoke to the news media. “The enemy always targets soft targets, especially civilians,” Mr. Abdi Abdullahi said. “Their target is to terrorize the public and bring death and destruction, and I condemn these barbaric attacks.” On Friday, the Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular hotel and a public garden in Mogadishu that killed at least 10 people and injured more than 25 others. Four militants were also killed in the attack, security officials said. What analysts have been warning of for months now seems to be occurring: The Shabab are making a comeback. In the past two months, their militants have killed more than 150 people, including Kenyan soldiers stationed at a remote desert outpost and beachcombers in Mogadishu. This month, the Shabab claimed responsibility for a bomb placed aboard a Somali jetliner that tore a hole through the fuselage. Baidoa had been considered fairly secure before Sunday’s bombings. Some analysts see another reason behind the recent surge in violence: a rivalry between the Shabab, an Al Qaeda affiliate, and the Islamic State. The Shabab militants are eager to show, in the deadliest ways possible, that their group has not been eclipsed in relevance. Somalia’s central government remains weak, and Shabab forces strive to show that the country’s leaders cannot provide basic services, especially security. |