Bomb kills 5 during football match in Somalia

Civilians look on as smoke billows from the scene of an explosion at a security checkpoint in the Hodan district of Mogadishu. Somalia has been wracked by violence during the past days. (Reuters)

MOGADISHU: A bomb killed at least five spectators at a football match in southern Somalia, police and a lawmaker said on Friday, the first time an explosion has targeted a stadium.
The blast went off in the port town of Barawe, in the Lower Shabelle region, when residents were watching a football match on Thursday afternoon, police said.
“The bomb killed five people and injured a dozen others in the football field. All the casualties were from the onlookers,” Mahad Dhoore, a lawmaker for South West state told Reuters.
Police officer Mohamed Aden said the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group was suspected of being behind the attack and put the number of dead at four and wounded at 12.
“We believe Al-Shabab was behind and that the target was officials who were not seated there at the time of the match. The bomb looked like a remotely controlled one that was planted there,” Aden told Reuters from Barawe.