Senior officials among nine dead in Somalia twin bombings

Shafaq News/ Nine people, including senior regional officials, were killed in twin car bombings claimed by Al-Shabaab in central Somalia on Monday, police said, as the government escalates an offensive against the Islamists.

Two cars packed with explosives were detonated minutes apart outside local government offices in Beledweyne, a city at the heart of recent offensives against the Al-Qaeda-linked militants who control swathes of Somalia.

"The initial information we have received confirms the death of nine people" including a state minister and a commissioner, said Mohamed Moalim Ali, a local police commander.

The health minister of Hirshabelle state -- where Beledweyne is located -- and a deputy district commissioner were among the dead, Ali added, with 10 others injured in the "suicide attacks."

Somali forces and "international security partners" have been waging an aggressive counterinsurgency in recent weeks, with the government on Monday announcing the killing of Abdullahi Yare, a top Al-Shabaab operative, in a joint air strike on Saturday in the south of the country.

"This leader... was the head preacher of the group and one of the most notorious members of the Shabaab group," the ministry of information said.

A co-founder of Al-Shabaab with a $3 million US bounty on his head, Yare was believed to be next in line to take over the leadership of the movement from its ailing chief Ahmed Diriye, according to the ministry.

The US Africa Command said Monday that it carried out a drone strike targeting Al-Shabaab two days earlier in coordination with Somalia's federal government.

"The command's initial assessment is that the strike killed an Al-Shabaab leader and that no civilians were injured or killed," it said in a statement.

Somalia's recently elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has vowed an all-out war on the jihadists, after a string of deadly attacks, including a 30-hour hotel siege in the capital Mogadishu that killed 21 people.

Mohamud last month urged citizens to stay away from areas controlled by Al-Shabaab as government forces supported by local clan militias launched offensives in Hiraan region, of which Beledweyne is the capital.

Military officials and clan elders told AFP that local residents had decided to take up arms against the militants, who have been accused of extorting money from them.