Car bombs kill more than 20, injures another 30

More than 20 people were killed and 30 others wounded when twin car bombings hit a town in central Somalia, a Somali official said Thursday, the latest attack to illustrate how an Islamic terrorist group remains deadly even as it loses territory amid a large-scale government offensive.

The two explosions hit a residential area of Mahas, a town in the Hiran region, Wednesday. Mumin Mohamed Halane, the district commissioner of Mahas, told state radio that the first bomb was detonated in front of his house and that the second one targeted the home of a lawmaker.

Many nearby homes were damaged, leaving some potential survivors trapped.

“Most of the dead are women and children,” Halane told Radio Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab, an extremist group that swears allegiance to al-Qaida, was quick to claim responsibility for the blasts, asserting that it had killed 87 people, including military officials and soldiers.

Authorities did not release an official figure of casualties, but a senior Somali government official said that more than 20 people had been killed and 30 others injured. Media reports put the death toll at as high as 35, with 40 wounded. More than two dozen of the injured were airlifted for treatment in the capital, Mogadishu, said the Somali official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter with the news media and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The attack comes months into a large-scale government campaign aimed at battling the terrorist group, which has wreaked havoc across Somalia.