Suicide bombers kill at least sixteen in southern Somali city

At least 16 people were killed in a double suicide attack on a restaurant and coffee shop in Baidoa town in southwest Somalia.

According to Muktar Adan, a police official in the provincial capital Baidoa, the number of confirmed deaths from the two explosions is 16 and about 20 other people have been injured, some seriously. Nine people were killed in the second explosion and seven in the first.

The affected areas were high-traffic areas and according to witnesses, both attacks took place within minutes of each other.

Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed Somali government in Mogadishu.

These suicide attacks occur on the eve of the first anniversary of an attack on a truck that killed more than 500 people in Mogadishu. The responsibility for this attack, the deadliest in Somali history, was attributed to the Somali Islamist Shebab, affiliated with al-Qaeda.

The attacks follow a U.S. airstrike against al Shabaab militants in Haradere, a district in Galmudug region.

The U.S. military’s Africa Command said on Saturday it was still assessing the impact of the strike, which was carried out on Friday together with the Somali military.

Somalia has been engulfed by violence and lawlessness since the early 1990s after the toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.