Somali Islamists kill 18 people in attacks

Baidoa: Somali Islamists killed at least 18 people in attacks across the Horn of Africa nation on Thursday, in a growing campaign of hit-and-run assaults spreading their rebellion far from the Mogadishu epicentre.

The Al Shabaab militant group, which the US says has Al Qaida links and put on its terrorist list in February, hit in three locations yesterday, and took over an empty town. Security experts say Al Shabaab is leading the insurgency against President Abdullahi Yousuf's interim government, which defeated the militant group and its allies in the Somalia Islamic Courts Council with Ethiopian military help last year.