The first bomb, concealed in an empty tin, exploded near the Hotel Banaroma at the Sanca junction.
“We drinking in a tea shop when the bomb exploded ... when we were hit by the stones and sands from the explosion,” one witness told Somalia Report. “We saw crying and shouting.”
Local resident Mahamoud Fidow said he saw six bodies after the blast. “We can tell you that six people died, including soldiers,” he told Somalia Report. “The explosion came when government forces tried to open a bomb concealed in a large empty tin of tomatoes.”
Meanwhile four people were wounded, including two young children, in an explosion in Banadir hospital last night. Seven suspects were arrested. “I was in the toilet when the explosion came on the upper floor,” one witness told Somalia Report. “I was afraid fighting had started, and ran to the room where my sister was suffering from cholera.”
None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening, and several suspects were arrested. A nurse said the injured were all women and children.
Five people were killed in another explosion at Four Gardens, Yaqshid district,including three soldiers.
”I was opening my store door when another bomb exploded; I had closed after I heard of the first bomb at Sanca road junction," a store owner told Somalia Report. "I saw three soldiers and two civilians dead." Militant Islamist group al-Shabaab has stepped up bomb attacks in recent weeks as it carries out its new guerrilla tactics, and there could have been a lot more casualties had another bomber slipped through the security net in Dhobley.
TFG soldiers say they arrested a man with an explosive device strapped to his body when it failed to detonate.
“When he arrived at our position, he tried to blow himself up, but here was a problem: he pressed the (detonation) wires several times, but nothing happened and we seized him," a soldier in Dhobley told Somalia Report.