MOGADISHU
\nNineteen people have been killed in twin car bombings in central Somalia claimed by Al-Shabaab, a local militia commander in the Hiran region said.
\n\u201cNineteen people, including members of the security forces and civilians, died in the blasts,\u201d said Mohamed Moalim Adan, a leader of a community militia allied with the government in Mahas, the district where the attacks took place.
\nThe attack, blamed on Al-Shabab extremist fighters, took place in the Hiran region of central Somalia, where a major offensive was launched last year against the Al-Qaeda-linked group.
\n\u201cThe terrorists, after having (been) defeated, resorted to desperately targeting civilians, but this will not stop the will of the people to continue defeating them,\u201d said Osman Nur, a police commander in Mahas.
\n\u201cThey have killed innocent civilians in the explosions,\u201d he added.
\nWitnesses said the blasts occurred near a restaurant not far from a district administration building in Mahas.
\n\u201cI saw the dead bodies of nine civilians including women and children, this was a horrible attack,\u201d said one witness, Adan Hassan.
\nSomalia\u2019s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared \u201call-out war\u201d against Al-Shabab, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the fragile internationally-backed federal government for 15 years.
\nIn July, local clan militias known as \u201cMacawisley\u201d launched a revolt against Al-Shabab in parts of central Somalia, and Mohamud sent in troops in September to support the fight-back.
\nIn recent months, the army and the militias have retaken swathes of territory in the central states of Galmudug and Hirshabelle (where Hiran is located) in an operation backed by US air strikes and an African Union (AU) force known as ATMIS.
\nBut the insurgents have frequently retaliated with bloody attacks, underlining their ability to strike at the heart of Somali towns and military installations despite the offensive.
\nAlthough forced out of the country\u2019s main urban centers around 10 years ago, Al-Shabab remains entrenched in vast swathes of rural central and southern Somalia.
\nOn October 29, 121 people in the capital Mogadishu were killed in two car bomb explosions at the education ministry, in the deadliest attack in the troubled Horn of Africa nation in five years.
\nEight civilians died on November 27 in a 21-hour siege at a hotel in Mogadishu popular with politicians and government officials.
\nA triple bombing in October in the city of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiran, left 30 people dead including local officials.
\nAnd at least 21 people were killed in a siege of a Mogadishu hotel in August that lasted 30 hours before security forces were able to overpower the militants inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOGADISHU Nineteen people have been killed in twin car bombings in central Somalia claimed by Al-Shabaab, a local militia commander in the Hiran region said. \u201cNineteen people, including members of the security forces and civilians, died in the blasts,\u201d said Mohamed Moalim Adan, a leader of a community militia allied with the government in Mahas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-305545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n