Ten players from the Jubaland Chamber of Commerce and Industry club were heading off for a game at the Kismayo
...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region....
city stadium in southern Somalia when the blast hit.
"The players were riding in a bus when the earth-shattering kaboom went off, presumably inside the vehicle. There are investigations going on but we presume the device was planted onto the bus," said police officer Mohammed Sadiq.
He said four football players were killed and five others maimed.
"The blast was huge and it caused a devastating fire which burned down the bus, people rushed to remove the dead bodies and maimed players," said witness Ibrahim Ahmed.
"I saw the burning bus and three dead bodies of the players -- this was horrible because football players are not politicians," added another witness, Said Adan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in Kismayo, capital of the southern state of Jubaland which borders Kenya.
Jubaland was the first state to start voting this week in long-delayed national elections in Somalia that the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab
...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them...jihadist group has threatened to disrupt.