MOGADISHU: At least seven people have been killed in southwest Somalia, after suicide bombers targeted a restaurant and coffee shop, police said Saturday.
“The first blast was targeting a restaurant near the main city roundabout where the information we are getting indicates a suicide bomber detonated himself, seven people were killed and more than ten others wounded,” said Muktar Adan, a police official in the provincial capital of Baidoa where the blasts took place.
“The second blast presumably carried out by another suicide bomber wearing explosives targeted a coffee shop along densely populated street, we don’t have the casualty numbers, but we assume several were killed in the second blast as well,” he said by phone.
Witnesses said blasts occurred within a few minutes from each other.
“It looks that these attacks were organised in a way to inflict many civilian casualties because of the targets the bombers have selected,” said witness Abdifatah Mohamed
“I saw eight dead bodies of civilians being carried from the scene of the first blast and there are several ambulances collecting dead and wounded victims from the scene of the second blast, we don’t have the exact number of the casualty so far,” said another witness Adaf Sheik.
The blasts came a day before the first anniversary of a truck bombing that left more than 500 dead in Mogadishu, the worst ever attack in Somalia which was blamed on Islamist group Al-Shabaab.
Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed Somali government in Mogadishu.
The Shabaab were forced out of the capital by African Union troops in 2011 but still control parts of the countryside and carry out attacks against government, military and civilian targets seemingly at will in Mogadishu and regional towns.
