MOGADISHU (REUTERS) - A bomb killed at least five spectators at a football match in southern Somalia, police and a lawmaker said on Friday (April 13), the first time an explosion has targeted a stadium. The Somalia-based, al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion in the port town of Barawe. Col. Abdirizak Ahmed tells The Associated Press that eight others were wounded in the explosion during a local match in the packed stadium in the port town of Barawe. 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, adding that al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab could be behind the attack. The extremist group often targets high-profile areas of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and it was blamed for the October truck bombing there that killed 512 people in the country’s deadliest-ever attack. “The bomb killed five people and injured a dozen others in the football field.
Police say a bombing took place in Barawe, Lower Shabelle, Somalia, at a football stadium yesterday, the first time a stadium in the country has been targeted, killed up to five spectators.