Speaking to Radio Shabelle on condition of anonymity, the villager added that they woke up to heavy bombardment last night in Hawa Tako area, where several civilians were reported to have been maimed.
Al-Shabaab
...... Somalia's version of the Taliban...Arabic for
students...
, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
fired the mortars from outside the city in a bid to send a message of its presence, said a security official.
The city which lies 350Km North of Mogadishu has seen deadly car kabooms last year that killed civilians and regional officials.
Al-Shabaab stepped up attacks in Somalia after losing grip on most strongholds in Galmudug
...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth...
and Hirshabelle states to SNA and allied local community fighters.