A bomb blast killed a senior regional minister and his son in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa, state-owned Radio Mogadishu reported late Friday.
Media reports stated that Hassan Ibrahim Lugbur, the South West State's Justice Minister, and his son were among the dead in addition to at least seven people injured.
No particular group claimed responsibility for the bombing so far, but the state's head, Abdul Aziz Mahmoud Hussein, blamed the attack on Al-Shabaab movement.
In the same vein, at least 10 people were killed and over 20 others injured on Friday when al-Shabab extremists attacked a town that sits on the Somali side of the border with Ethiopia, according to witnesses and officials.
“The militants launched a surprise dawn attack on the town of Aato in the Bakol region of Somalia this morning [Friday], triggering fierce gun battles with a joint Ethiopian paramilitary Liyu police officers and Somali forces,” witnesses who requested anonymity fearing reprisals told VOA.
One of the witnesses revealed that the militant fighters began their attack using car bombs and mortar shells, then used guns as they fought the opposing forces.
Members of Somalia’s parliament were in the town to distribute food aid sent from Mogadishu to drought-affected residents during the attack.
“Heavily armed militants, using mortar shells and machine guns mounted on vehicles attacked the town, confronting joint Somali and Ethiopian forces in the streets of the town in a battle that ensued for three hours,” Aden Mohamed Nor, a Somali lawmaker, in the town during the attack, told VOA by phone.
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