Somalia Bombing and Ambush Kill at Least 13, Including Soldiers

By Mohamed Sheikh Nor

At least seven people were killed and eight others injured after a bomb ripped through a restaurant in the Middle Shabelle region town of El-Baraf in Somalia, an army official and relatives said. A separate ambush killed at least six soldiers near the southern Somali town of Baidoa.

El-Baraf was recently liberated by AMISOM-led forces from Al-Shabaab fighters who controlled the town for eight years. According to Ahmed Tohow, an army officer at El-Baraf, most of the dead were civilians. The officer said the blast was caused by a landmine planted inside the restaurant and that seven were killed.

Arale Ali, a relative of one of the wounded, said by phone that he saw eight wounded people lying in a pool of blood.
In the second incident, at least six Somali forces were confirmed dead and five others injured in an ambush by Al-Shabaab fighters on the outskirts of the southern Somali town of Baidoa, police and officials said. A convoy was on its way to Daynunay, a military base, when it was ambushed by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.

Ahmed Nunow, a police officer at police headquarters in Baidoa, confirmed by phone that six soldiers had been killed in the surprise attack. The newly established regional administration’s security minister in Baidoa, Abdifatah Gesey, said that five other soldiers were wounded.

Al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement aired by pro-Al-Shabaab broadcaster Radio Andalus.