More than 10 dead in twin blast in Somalia town

A double suicide bomb attack claimed by Islamist insurgents al-Shabaab has left at least ten people dead on Sunday in Galkayo in central Somalia.

“There were two auto bomb blasts which targeted the local government headquarters”.

Abdisalam Yusuf said one bomber rammed the auto into a checkpoint in Galkayo town Sunday morning after reaching the main gate of Puntland’s local government. Witnesses said the first was a truck bomb, followed by a vehicle bomb.

“There were two huge bombs”. Police had initially put the death toll from the attack at 10, including civilians and security forces. “My brother was injured at the scene”, Halima Ismail, a local resident, told the news agency. “It was terrible. The first blast was caused by a truck loaded with explosives, and the second was a minibus”, he said.

The attack targeted a government compound housing administrative offices, police said. In March, at least six people were killed when the outfit attacked a hotel in Galkayo. Al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda working to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, is expected to violently disrupt elections that are to be held in September and October.

The jihadists have also staged repeated attacks in neighbouring Kenya.