Two blasts kill 40 in Somalia

Two bombings in south-central Somalia have killed at least 40 people and injured 70 others.

The bombings happened in the town of Baidoa, a key location in the African Union’s fight against Al-Shabaab.

A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a restaurant in Baidoa, and a car bomb exploded near a crowded pharmacy, a source with knowledge of the attacks told CNN.

The blasts in the remote town follow a pair of attacks Friday in a popular park in downtown Mogadishu and a restaurant there.

Al-Shabaab is the Islamist extremist group that has been terrorizing Somalia and neighboring nations for years.

The al Qaeda-linked militant organization’s aim is to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. It hasn’t confined its ambitions to Somalia, however, as evidenced by other horrific attacks like last year’s massacre at Kenya’s Garissa University College and a 2013 siege at Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall.

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