(Reuters/NAN)
Police and military sources confirmed in Mogadishu on Sunday that 21 persons were killed in two separate suicide car attacks in Somalia on Saturday.
Col. Ahmed Ato, the military official, said the attack at Kismayu University, which is being used as a base for training government troops, was launched as soldiers were lining up for training.
The official said 16 Somali soldiers were killed and 21 others wounded in the blast.
Ato said the second car exploded in Mogadishu, at a busy junction in the evening, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.
Mohamed Yusuf, spokesman, Interior Security Ministry, told reporters at the scene, that “so far, we know five civilians died in this evening’s blast and seven others were injured.’’
Meanwhile, Sheikh Abu-Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, said his group was behind the car bomb in Kismayu.
Islamist militant group al Shabaab has lost control of most of their territories to African Union troops in recent years but stepped up attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.
