Hiiraan Online
Sunday March 13, 2016
MOGADISHU (HOL) – A Somali military tribunal has sentenced five Somalis to death for their role in twin blasts in the south-western town of Baidoa last month.
More than 30 people were killed in simultaneous attacks involved by a car and suicide bombs that targeted two neighbouring restaurants. The Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabab group has claimed the responsibility for the attacks.Col. Hassan Nur, a military court judge who read the verdict said that the court convicted five men, out of seven arrested for the attacks of having planned the two blasts, and jailed another one for 3 years.
During the hearing, the court also acquitted a seventh man who was released from the jail after prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to back up their claims.
The attacks come despite efforts by local officials to curb violence in the town which has seen attacks before, with more than 11 people were killed in a suicide attack on the local administration’s headquarters in March last year.
Baidoa town which is the regional capital for Southwestern State, a regional administration led by the former parliament speaker of Somalia Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden is under the control of Ethiopian troops who are parts of the AU forces and Somali forces.
Despite being ousted from large swathes in south and central Somalia, Al Shabab continues to carry out guerrilla attacks, in a shift of its military strategy by the group which faces a military pressure by the allied forces and US airstrikes that killed dozens of Al Shabab leaders including the group’s spiritual leader Ahmed Abdi Godane.
Somali prime minister had vowed his government would oust militants from the areas still under their in 2016, a year the government proposed to hold a presidential election.