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Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa (ASWJ) authorities have increased security measures in Dhusamareb following a suicide bombing at a café that killed six people and seriously injured more than ten on Tuesday (May 1st).

Enhanced security measures include an indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew and an increased number of checkpoints in the town, ASWJ's deputy leader Sheikh Ahmed Abdullahi Ilkaase told Sabahi. The pro-government militia administers parts of the Galguduud region.

Lawmakers were meeting with citizens at a restaurant to discuss setting up a regional administration, when a young man entered and blew himself up, according to officials and witnesses. Four civilians and two lawmakers were killed, and two other lawmakers were among the wounded.

"The person who blew up himself went towards the area where the officials were seated in the coffee shop and blew himself up when he was intercepted by one of the security agents of the parliamentarians," Duraan Ali Jama, a resident who witnessed the explosion, told Sabahi.

A sombre mood overtook the area immediately after the explosion, he said.

ASWJ officials told Sabahi they were surprised by the attack.

"It is a new strategy. We have engaged in fighting with the al-Qaeda members in this region before… but this business of targeting children and public places is a bad trend and it will lead to their disintegration," said Ilkaase.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack describing it as an act of revenge for the death of Adaan Haji Eyrow, a high-ranking official in the group who was killed in Dhusamareb in 2008.

"The men who assassinated Adaan Haji Eyrow are the ones who were killed in Dhusamareb. God has made it possible for us to kill them in the way that they planned the killing of Adaan four years ago," said al-Shabaab spokesperson Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, speaking to al-Shabaab-controlled Radio Andalus on Tuesday evening.

Parliamentarians Yusuf Mire Seeraar and Abdiweli Mohammed were among the victims who died. On Tuesday, some of the surviving victims were transferred to Addis Ababa for medical treatment. Others are scheduled to receive treatment in Nairobi.

Somali government officials and religious leaders condemned the attack and vowed to continue their efforts to eradicate al-Shabaab from the country.

"Al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda have resorted to killing Somali civilians and their scholars, but it will not stop the government from efforts to eliminate al-Shabaab," Somalia's Information Minister Abdikadir Hussein Mohammed said in a statement.

The minister urged citizens to unite against al-Qaeda's terrorism.

Sheikh Nur Barud Gurhan, spokesperson for the Somali Association of Islamic Scholars, also condemned the suicide attack and called al-Shabaab's actions "un-Islamic", Shabelle Media Network reported.

Sheikh Mohammad Yusuf Hefow, the head of ASWJ, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and reiterated ASWJ's commitment to secure the territory under their control.

"It is a merciless act executed by the al-Qaeda terrorist group," said Hefow, adding that they will investigate where the attack was planned.

Omar Ali Roble, former minister for disarmament and reintegration of militias, told Sabahi that a delegation of government officials surveying the area was the target of the attack.

Roble, who was part of the delegation, said they were touring regions recently liberated from al-Shabaab to discuss with local leaders how to best set up regional government and provide security to these areas.

"The attack was meant for the delegates who were surveying the region," Roble said. "Al-Shabaab failed, [the attack] did not unfold as they had anticipated," he said.