International Desk: At least 19 people have been killed in twin car bombings in central Somalia, a local militia commander said.

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"Nineteen people, including members of the security forces and civilians, died in the blasts," said Mohamed Moalim Adan, a leader of a community militia allied with the government in Mahas, the district where the attacks took place.

The attack, blamed on Al-Shabab extremist fighters, took place in the Hiran region of central Somalia, where a major offensive was launched last year against the Al-Qaeda-linked group.

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Osman Nur, a police commander in Mahas, said the terrorists, after having (been) defeated, resorted to desperately targeting civilians, but this will not stop the will of the people to continue defeating them. They have killed innocent civilians in the explosions.

Witnesses said the blasts occurred near a restaurant not far from a district administration building in Mahas.

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Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared “all-out war” against Al-Shabab, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the fragile internationally-backed federal government for 15 years.

On October 29, 121 people in the capital Mogadishu were killed in two car bomb explosions at the education ministry, in the deadliest attack in the troubled Horn of Africa nation in five years.

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Eight civilians died on November 27 in a 21-hour siege at a hotel in Mogadishu popular with politicians and government officials.

Sun News/MR

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