By Suleiman Sabdow
Mogadishu– At least eight civilians were killed and 13 others injured in a landmine explosion in Somalia’s South West State on Friday.
The explosion took place in a busy market in the town of Berdale in Bay region located some 310 kilometers (192 miles) from the capital Mogadishu, a police official told the media.
“Communications are cut off in the area but we can confirm that at least eight people, mostly civilians, have died and 13 more are injured,” said Mohammed Ahmed Isaq, a cop in Baidoa, the administrative capital of South West State.
“Three of the wounded are in critical condition, while the injuries of the rest are not life-threatening,” he added.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast but the Al- Qaeda affiliate group Al- Shabaab have been staging attacks in Somalia since the fall out of the regime of the late president Siyad Barre in 1991.
Al- Shabaab carried out two attacks in the capital Moqadishu last week, one of which left three people dead and scores of others wounded when a suicide bomber detonated himself near the busy Banadir junction where the African Union Military (AMISOM) was passing by at the time of the attack.
Somalia government forces (SNA) have recently stepped up efforts to dislodging the militant group from key and strategic towns in the midst of surge of killings of civilians by unknown gunmen.
