Mogadishu(Mogadishu24)-At least 21 civilians mostly women and children were killed and 17 others injured after Somalia’s International Partners carried out airstrike operations at Bagdad village between Basra and Jambalul locations near Afgoye district in lower Shabelle region southern Somalia, families said.

Relatives of the victims told reporters in Mogadishu that 4 out of 38 victims are men only, saying the rest were women and children, all families like women with her daughters or daughters with the mothers and grandmothers.

“Our people were massacred by the Somalia, they were farmers, they were not Al-Shabaab. They were all women and children except four men of two of them injured in the airstrike missiles. the incident happened overnight and they did not get emergency medical services”,one of the relatives of the victims standing informant of Madina hospital in Mogadishu told reporters today.

Another relative members requested the Government to intervene the situation, saying one family(one tribe) was targeted and they could not even help one another and some of the victims were killed while extending help to others in the area.

Somalia’s Ministry of Information said in a statement Tuesday that Somali Army with the support of International Partners killed 39 Al-Shabaab fighters in the same area in lower Shabelle region.

Al-Shabaab militants said that its fighters killed 9 Somali Security personnel including two officers and injured 13 others during an ambush attack near the same area yesterday.

Human rights groups often condemn atrocities including civilians killed in airstrike missiles in the south and central Somalia. It is not the first time civilians targeted during the on-going offensive operations against Al-Shabaab in Somalia.