Mogadishu (Sunatimes) At least three people have on Thursday died and others wounded when Al-Shabaab rebel fighters opened fire on vehicle transporting consignments of Khat (a mild stimulant) from Dobley to Qoqani at an area between Qoqani and Tabta, Lower Juba.

Confirming the incident, the area government military chief, Col. Mohamed Hassan Bule told Bar-kulan that rebel fighters ambushed a pick-up-truck ferrying Khat for Somali traders.

He said three died on the spot while one was badly injured during the attack.

Bule further revealed that the rebel fighters seized the vehicle and those on board and took them to undisclosed location.

He said they will dispatch government troops to the area in efforts to rescue people taken hostage by the militant fighters.

The vehicle is said to have ferried the consignment from the border town of Dobley along the Kenyan-Somali border.

Earlier last August, two businessmen were killed in Hagar town, Lower Jubba, when Al-Shabaab militants opened fire on a vehicle they were travelling in after allegedly trying to evade Al-Shabaab checkpoint.

Al-Shabaab official in the area accused the victims of trying to illegally smuggle Khat (narcotic leaves) into the town.

Relatives of the deceased men have expressed dismay at Al-Shabaab’s brutal act of killing the two men without any apparent reasons.

They strongly rubbished Al-Shabaab’s claim accusing the vehicle carrying the deceased of trying to evade their checkpoint, saying such claims were maliciously intended and called it a deliberate killing of innocent men.

By Fadumo Farah