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A wounded man is carried by residents after an explosion in Mogadishu - Source: Reuters -
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A suicide bomber dressed as a veiled woman killed at least 19
people including three Somali government ministers at a graduation
ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, witnesses and officials said.
It was the worst attack in the lawless Horn of Africa nation since
June, when hard-line al Shabaab insurgents killed the security
minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide bombing at a
hotel in the town of Baladwayne.
The UN-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls
little more than a few streets of the capital.
In the days ahead of Thursday's attack, residents said it had
apparently been planning a new offensive against the rebels.
The bombing showed once again the insurgents' ability to strike the
government at will, and it will heighten frustration in the
country's fragile administration over delayed pledges of military
and financial support from Western donors.
"Suicide bombings are a worrying trend not only for Somalia but
also the region. There has been a rise in fundamentalism in Somalia
coming from the Middle East and Pakistan," said Bethuel Kiplagat,
Kenya's special envoy to the Somalia peace process from
2003-2005.
"There's a worry al Qaeda may be looking at Somalia as a new
sanctuary."
A reporter at the Shamo Hotel said it was packed with graduates
from Benadir University, their parents and officials when a
powerful blast tore through the ceremony.
"Human flesh was everywhere," he said.
Witnesses said the bomber entered the function disguised as a
veiled woman and then sat listening to the speeches for some time
before approaching the podium and blowing himself up.
Police later showed journalists pictures of his mangled
corpse.
Somalia's female health minister, Qamar Aden Ali, Education
Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel and Higher Education Minister
Ibrahim Hassan Addow all died in the explosion, officials said.
Sports Minister Saleban Olad Roble was critically injured.
The African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM said the blast was
caused by a suicide bomber and 19 civilians were killed.
Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairman of Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and
Human Rights Organisation, said more than 40 people were wounded,
including the dean of Benadir's medical college, who Gedi said had
been evacuated by plane to neighbouring Kenya.
"A lot of my friends were killed," medical student Mohamed
Abdulqadir, said.
"I was sitting next to a lecturer who also died. He had been
speaking to the gathering just a few minutes before the
explosion."
Al Qaeda's proxy
Dubai-based Al Arabiya Television said one of its cameramen, Hasan
al-Zubair, had been killed.
Suspicion for the blast immediately fell on the al Shabaab group,
which also struck at the heart of the main AU military base in
Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs in September, killing 17
peacekeepers including the deputy force commander.
Somali government officials say al Shabaab has hundreds of foreign
fighters in its ranks and Washington accuses the Islamist group of
being al Qaeda's proxy in the country.
It wants to impose its harsh version of Sharia law across
Somalia.
Western security experts say the nation has become a safe haven for
militants, including jihadists from overseas, who are using it to
plot attacks in the region and beyond.
Al Shabaab has threatened to strike Uganda's capital Kampala and
Burundi's capital Bujumbura because both nations contribute troops
to the 5,200-strong AU peacekeeping force AMISOM.
Kenyan security forces say they are on high alert on their frontier
with Somalia after al Shabaab gunmen seized several small towns on
the Somali side of the border in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Kenyan anti-terrorism police sources said they had
arrested nine members of another Somali rebel group, Hizbul Islam,
and seized 20 AK-47 rifles at Kiunga, on the coast near Somalia and
close to the A-list resort island of Lamu.
A senior anti-terrorism source told Reuters the men appeared to
have fled advancing Shabaab forces and may have been bringing in
guns to sell to local criminals to survive.
Fighting has killed at least 19,000 Somalis since the start of 2007
and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.
The anarchy has also spilled offshore, where heavily armed Somali
pirates have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.
"Only an intense engagement by the region and international
partners will give a chance of success in Somalia, but some
countries are clearly more preoccupied with their internal
concerns," Kenya's Kiplagat said, citing forthcoming elections in
Ethiopia, turmoil in Sudan and political wrangles in Kenya.
