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A family of nine have died in a double car bombing in central Hiraan province, Somalia, an eyewitness has told the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

A further 26 people were also killed, the local deputy policy commissioner told the Reuters news agency.

The al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabab has said it was behind the attack.

The district commissioner of Mahas town said his home and that of a local MP were the targets.

Meanwhile the second explosion targeted the market, the mayor of Mahas, Mumin Mohamed Halane, told the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

The blasts were so powerful that witnesses said people far away from the explosion sites were wounded by flying fragments.

"This was a horrible attack," witness Adan Hassan told the AFP news agency, describing the dead bodies he saw.

Al-Shabab has been losing ground in recent months after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pledged "total war" against the Islamist militants in August, following an attack on a popular Mogadishu hotel, which saw more than 20 people die.

Two months later, twin car bomb explosions near a busy junction in Mogadishu killed at least 100 people. Al-Shabab also said it was behind that attack.

President Mohamud subsequently mobilised the Somali army and government-backed clan militias in a bid to take villages and towns from al-Shabab, which controls large swathes of the country.

Despite their losses of territory, al-Shabab has continued to carry out attacks in central and southern Somalia.

Both African Union forces and US funds have been allocated to assist Somalia in its fight against al-Shabab.