Somalia: Four killed, seven injured in Bossaso explosion

BOSSASO, Puntland - At least four people were killed and seven others injured in an explosion at a restaurant in northeast Somalia’s Puntland commercial city of Bossaso on Wednesday afternoon.

A Puntland police officer told state-run Radio Mogadishu that the bomber struck in front of a restaurant in Bosasso’s Al Macruuf shopping center.

The motive of the latest attack in Puntland State has not been established.

Locals said security forces have launched a major manhunt for the perpetrators of the latest explosion in Bossaso town which has been beset by a series of landmine and suicide bombings including assassinations in the recent past.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but al-Qaida allied terror group, al-Shabab and the Islamic States (ISIS) have staged such attacks in the past in Bossaso and elsewhere in Puntland State.

The so-called ISIS wing in Somalia has its main base in the Puntland state and has occasionally clashed with Puntland forces and al-Shabab.