At least seven people, including security personnel, were killed in two separate explosions in central and southern Somalia, security agencies said on Sunday.
In the south, four people, among them soldiers, were killed on Saturday after two explosives went off at a house of a military officer in Wanlaweyn town, which is located to the northwest of Mogadishu.
“First we heard a blast at the house. The military officer was absent by then. Guards and residents came to find out what caused the blast and then a second blast went off,” a police officer named Mohamed Nur told Reuters.
In the central Somali state of Galmudug, three soldiers were killed while two others were injured after three suspected three militants executed a suicide bomb attack in a vehicle at a military checkpoint in Bacadweyn town.
According to a military officer, Major Abdullahi Ahmed, from Galkayo town, the trio disregarded orders to stop prompting soldiers to open fire.
The attack sparked a rise in fear and tension among residents of Bacadweyn who suspect the attackers were from the Islamist group Al-Shabaab.
“Al Shabaab have never attacked us. We are horrified this morning to witness a suicide car bomb. Government forces are a target but such attacks will not spare civilians,” a local elder Hassan Nur told Reuters.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Shabaab is fighting the central Somali government, which is backed by the African Union and the United Nations, in a bid to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
