At least seven people have been killed in two separate blasts in Somalia in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports quoting police and military sources.
The first incident occurred in Wanlaweyn town, 90 km northwest of the capital Mogadishu, where two bombs exploded in front of the house of a military official killing four people.
The four included two soldiers and two civilians.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Similar attacks have occurred in the past and were claimed by Islamist terror groups that have waged war in the Horn of African country for over a decade.
“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,” Reuters quotes Mohamed Nur, a police officer.
The second incident occurred in the central Somalia’s Galmudug state, involving a suicide bombing at a military check point in Bacadweyn town.
The attackers forced their way to the check point in a vehicle loaded with explosives.
Three soldiers were killed in the bombing and two others were wounded.
Residents of Bacadweyn, about 180 km to south east of Galkayo, said they were afraid the attackers belonged 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,” Reuters quotes local elder Hassan Nur.
Al -Shabaab has waged an Islamist war in Somalia for more than tean years, trying to force the government out and instill an extremist jihadist rule.
The war has killed thousands and displaced millions, and has been a major cause for Somalia’s larely dwarfed development.
