at least 19 civilians killed in an attack by Al-Shabaab Islamists

At least 19 civilians were killed in an attack by radical Al-Shabaab Islamists on a road in central Somalia on the night of Friday September 2 to Saturday September 3, clan leaders and local officials said. According to these sources, at least eight vehicles – passenger minibuses and trucks – traveling on a road between the towns of Beledweyne and Maxaas were intercepted, grouped together then burned, and their passengers killed, at the level of the village of Afar-Irdood.

“The terrorists massacred innocent civilians who were traveling (…) last night. We do not have the exact number of victims, but 19 corpses were collected. The attackers abducted several other people whose fate remains unknown”, Abdulahi Hared, a chieftain from Beledweyne, told AFP. This attack comes two weeks after a spectacular assault led by Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab on a hotel in the capital Mogadishu, which left at least 21 dead and 117 injured.

The Shebab for their part announced in a press release that they had targeted fighters from a local sub-clan. At the end of August, security forces and local fighters recaptured several villages in this region from Shebab. The Shebab have been leading an insurgency against the federal government since 2007, supported by the international community. They have been driven out of the main cities of the country, but remain established in large rural areas and remain a major threat to the authorities.