BELEDWEYNE, Somalia, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Sixteen people were killed Saturday in Somalia in an attack by al-Shabaab militants, officials said.
The fundamentalist militia claimed responsibility for a bombing at a cafe in the town of Beledweyne, 185 miles north of the capital, Mogadishu. The targets, the BBC said, were African Union soldiers stationed in the area. The cafe where the bomb went off is frequented by soldiers from Ethiopia and Djibouti -- two of the African countries that have contributed to a United Nations-sanctioned peacekeeping force that's tried to drive out the militants.
"Our main target was Ethiopian and Djibouti troops who invaded our country," said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab's military operations spokesman.
Witnesses told the BBC, however, a majority of those wounded or killed were not soldiers but civilians.
