Mogadishu: At least 12 people were killed and several others injured when a bomb exploded in Somalia on Monday targeting Somali and Ethiopian troops in a busy market in the southern city of Baidoa, media reported on Monday.
According to reports the attack was the deadliest since Ethiopian and Somali troops captured Baidoa, about 250km to the south-west of Mogadishu, from al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab rebels in February. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We planted a remotely controlled bomb in Baidoa market. We targeted the Ethiopian and the Somali troops. About three of them died,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al-Shabaab’s military operations, told Reuters.
Musab said soldiers had killed civilians after opening fire following the blast, which the regional governor has denied.
Witnesses said the explosion happened outside a butcher’s shop.
Abdifatah Ibrahim Mohamed, the governor of Bay region in Somalia said at least 12 civilians were killed and more than 30 wounded.
It was the second blast in the country in less than a week. Last week, a female suicide bomber killed six people, including two sports officials, in a theatre near the presidential palace in Mogadishu.
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