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2022-02-20 Africa Horn
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Suicide bomber kills more than 10 at tea shop in Somalia
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 [Garowe] A jacket wallah on Saturday targeted a tea shop in Beledwyene town in Central Somalia, leaving at least ten people dead and scores injured, in yet another attack that comes at the time the country is struggling to conclude Lower House elections.
Police said the attackers targeted a tea shop in Beledweyne, the administrative capital of the Hiraan region, which is set to host Lower House elections in the coming days. The attack left at least 15 people seriously injured.
Witnesses said the attacker walked to the tea shop before blowing himself as dozens of people scampered for safety. Saturdays are working days in Somalia, a country whose most residents are Moslems.
A witness video making rounds on social media show dead and maimed being evacuated from the scene of the suicide kaboom in Beledweyne. Reports indicate almost all the victims are civilians including at least one civilian official.
State media reported that deputy district commissioner for social affairs Abdirahman Kenyan is among the victims killed in the suicide kaboom. Also, reports say a regional politician has reportedly been hurt in the attack.
So far, no group has taken responsibility for the attack but al-Shabaab
 ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban
...Arabic for students ...
, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
holy warriors are known for such incidents. The group controls large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia, but efforts by security forces have seen its grip dwindle significantly.
On Wednesday, al-Shabaab waged multiple attacks within Mogadishu, leaving at least five people dead. The group usually targets security forces, senior government officials, and innocent civilians, who mostly bear the brunt of these cowardly attacks.
A jacket wallah killed 14 people in a popular restaurant in the central Somali town of Beledweyne on Saturday, on the eve of a round of voting there, police said.
The attack was claimed by the al-Shabaab Islamist bully boy group, which has been waging an insurgency in the troubled Horn of Africa nation for years.
Security had been tightened in Beledweyne ahead of a first session of voting for parliamentary seats in the constituency, which lies about 340 kilometres (210 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.
"The number of people who have died in the heinous terrorist attack in Beledweyne today has increased from 10 people to 14 as of now," local police officer Mohamud Hassan told AFP by phone.
He said some of the 16 civilians earlier reported maimed in the suicide kaboom had shuffled off the mortal coil in hospital. Among the dead were local government officials.
"This was the deadliest attack I can recall in this town," he added.
Al-Shabaab said in a statement that one of its fighters carried out the bombing.
Somalia, particularly Mogadishu, has seen a spate of attacks in recent weeks as the country hobbles through a long-delayed election process.
Witnesses said the huge explosion tore through an open area of the Hassan Dhiif restaurant where people had gathered under trees to eat lunch.
In another incident on Saturday, one person was killed and six others maimed when an bomb went off in a teashop in Bosaso, the commercial capital of the northern state of Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
, police said.
No-one has yet grabbed credit for that blast.
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Posted by trailing wife 2022-02-20 00:00||
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File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
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