9 Killed In An Alleged Al-Shabaab Suicide Bombing, Somalia
In southern Somalia, a district commissioner along with eight other people have been killed in an Al-Shabaab suicide bombing on Wednesday.
Lydia Kadima 
The suicide bombing claimed the lives of nine persons, among them a prominent local government official, the district commissioner Abdullahi Ali Ahmed Wafow.
"Commissioner Abdullahi Wafow was killed in an explosion together with eight other people, most of them security personnel," a police officer in Marka, Ibrahim Ali, told AFP by phone.
According to the police, the district commissioner was having a conversation with locals outside the administration building in the town of Marka when the incident happened.
Marka is about 100 kilometers south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
In a succinct statement, Al-Shaabab claimed accountability and stated that the commissioner was the objective of the "martydom operation."
"The police are still investigating the incident but there are already indications that a suicide bomber carried out the deadly attack."
According to a witness Abdukadir Hassan, the bomber ran up to the commissioner and blew himself up.
“I heard a huge blast. I ran toward the explosion scene. I have seen with my own eyes several bodies and remains of human flesh scattered on the ground," he said.
