BAIDOA, Somalia, April 9 (UPI) -- At least 12 people were killed and 30 injured Monday when an improvised explosive device detonated in the Somalia market town of Baidoa, witnesses said.
"The bomb, which was hid in an ice thermos, went off at a market in the town … which was placed by al-Shabaab fighters," police officer Ali Muumin told China's Xinhua News Agency.
Radio Garowe reported al-Shabaab, an offshoot of al-Qaida, intended to kill Somali government troops stationed in Baidoa.
"There was a huge explosion next to the meat market and vegetable market where many women were shopping for groceries, the majority killed in the blast were women," Radio Garowe quoted a female shopkeeper who was a few blocks away as saying.
The injured were taken to a nearby hospital under the control of Somali government forces and Ethiopian troops, Xinhua said.
