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Somalis look at the body of a suspected suicide car bomber in Mogadishu after the bomb killed six policemen and a civilian - Source: Reuters -
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A suicide bomber killed six policemen and a civilian in
Somalia's capital and hard-line Islamist insurgents warned more
suicide attacks would target pro-government forces in the coming
days.
Abdifatah Shaweye, deputy governor of Mogadishu, said the bomber
drove a 4x4 vehicle to the gate of a police headquarters and
detonated it by the guards.
"Four died on the spot, two others died of serious injuries, and
one civilian (died)," a police commander, who asked not to be
named, told Reuters.
An upsurge in violence this month has killed nearly 200 people in Mogadishu and forced some 60,000 residents from their homes.
At least 53 people have died since Friday morning, when the
government attacked rebel strongholds in the city.
Neighbouring states and Western governments fear Somalia, which has
been mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a base for
militants linked to al Qaeda and destabilise the region, unless the
new government can defeat them.
The chaos onshore has also allowed piracy to flourish off Somalia's
coast and foreign navies are now patrolling the busy shipping lanes
to try to curb attacks.
Islamist insurgent group al Shabaab, which Washington says has
links to Osama bin Laden, has been spearheading the rebel offensive
with allied guerrilla group Hizbul Islam.
They stepped up attacks in the capital early in May.
"Abdikadir Mohamed Hasan of our Mujahideen carried out the suicide
car bomb," Sheik Husein Ali Fidow, a senior al Shabaab official
told reporters in a news conference via phone.
"It was committed by a young Somalia boy born in Mogadishu. More
suicide car bombs are on the way coming hours, days and months," he
said.
Fleeing violence
The United Nations says hundreds of foreign fighters have joined
the rebels and an influential opposition leader said some Arabs had
come to Somalia to wage holy war against the Western-backed
government.
Security sources say the hard-line Islamist insurgents have been
planting more sophisticated roadside bombs in recent months and
Iraq-style suicide attacks have become more frequent.
On Sunday morning, more Mogadishu residents took advantage of a
lull in the fighting to grab some belongings and flee to sprawling
refugee camps outside the crumbling city.
A young woman wearing a bright blue headscarf trudged along a dusty
road with a bed mat and mattress strapped to her back and a cooking
pot and kerosene lamp hanging from her arms.
A woman clutching a plastic bag and a small suitcase
followed.
"I call on the international community and the aid agencies to
react very urgently to the worsening humanitarian situation in
Somalia," Mohamud Abdi Ibrahim, Minister for Humanitarian Affairs,
told reporters on Sunday.
The UN's refugee agency said 57,000 people had fled Mogadishu since
the upsurge in violence this month.
Since the start of 2007, fighting between Islamist insurgents and
pro-government forces has killed at least 17,700 civilians and
driven more than a million from their homes.
About three million Somalis survive on emergency food aid.
Even if government forces drive the rebels from Mogadishu, experts
say they would struggle to control distant provinces, in a country
plagued by violence since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in
1991.
Ethiopia denied again reports from residents that it had sent
soldiers back to Somalia, where its forces fought the insurgents
for two years before withdrawing in January.
Residents in the southern Bakool region said Ethiopians in armoured
vehicles and trucks had entered a town in Somalia.
"We have not sent any troops into Somalia. We have been clear about
this for days now. Nothing has changed," said Wahade Belay,
spokesman for Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry.
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