 MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide bomber dressed as a veiled woman killed at least 19 people including three Somali government ministers on Thursday at a graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, witnesses and officials said. The U.N.-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 Reuters 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, told Reuters. "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. Source: Reuters
The blast was blamed on Islamic militants who have shown a rising ability to carry out sophisticated large-scale bombings against high-profile targets — and highlighted the inability of Somalia's weak government to protect even the small section of the capital it controls. "Today should have been a day of celebration — not mourning," said Somalia's ambassador to Kenya, Mohamed Ali Nur. "The hopes of many parents who eagerly awaited their sons' graduation were recklessly dashed ... cutting short the lives of ambitious Somalis." Amateur video of the attack obtained by AP Television News showed the dead, including at least three journalists, lying in pools of blood amid the sound of wails and screams from the wounded. Soldiers, their AK-47 rifles slung over their shoulders, picked through the wreckage with their hands as survivors climbed over the debris of the bombed-out room. The attack targeted one of Somalia's most important efforts to extricate itself from anarchy and violence, explaining the presence of so many top government officials. The graduating medical students were only the second class to receive diplomas from the medical school. "The loss of our ministers is disastrous, but it is an outrage to target the graduation of medical students and kill those whose only aim in life was to help those most in need in our stricken country," Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke said. Before last year's graduation, almost two decades had passed since anyone earned a medical degree in Somalia. At the December 2008 ceremony, graduates proudly hoisted their diplomas into the air. This year, there was mayhem as the bomb went off while a Somali official addressed the gathering, sending metal shards and other debris flying and leaving dead and wounded in bloody heaps. The bomb exploded about a yard from journalists covering the event. "The explosion occurred really close to me, about a meter away. I jumped over some of the dead people laying on the ground and I went outside," said Associated Press reporter Mohamed Olad Hassan. "What I think is I was lucky and people who were next to me, closer to the explosion shielded me from the explosion. The explosion was still thundering in my ears when I got back to the office." Abdul Rahman Bukhari, a reporter for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television station whose colleague, cameraman Hassan Zubeir, was killed, said the bombing "was the worst moment of my life." After the attack, overturned white plastic chairs and tables littered the floor, which was stained red with blood. A single sandal lay in a pool of congealed blood, along with a briefcase and graduation programs. Bodies, some draped with blue cloths, lay alongside the wounded. One man in khaki pants and a white shirt sat in his own blood, twisting his head to watch as victims were dragged out of the building. On the steps outside, a dead man lay doubled over, his head resting on the blood-soaked ground as though he were praying. Sharmarke said it was "beneath contempt" to attack and kill students and called for urgent help from the international community to prevent the further rise of al-Shabab, a militant group with links to al-Qaida. "What happened today is a national disaster," said Somali Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle, who confirmed that the ministers for education, higher education and health were killed in the blast. The ministers for sports and tourism were among the 46 wounded, he said. Twenty-two people were killed, along with the suicide bomber, Gelle said. The bomber "disguised himself as a woman, complete with a veil and a female's shoes," he said. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell upon al-Shabab, which controls much of the country and has carried out past suicide attacks. http://www.hiiraan. A suicide bomber killed 18 people including three Somali government ministers at a ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel on Thursday, officials said. The blast is the most serious attack on the transitional federal government (TFG) since the launch of an Al-Qaeda inspired Islamist insurgency that has brought new strife to the Horn of Africa nation. Several ministers from the UN-backed government were at a graduation ceremony for students at the Shamo hotel when the explosion went off. A security official said 18 people were killed and that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber. "Most of the vicitms were students," the official said. A hotel security official said the suicide bomber was probably hidden among the guests. Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow and Health Minister Qamar Aden were killed on the spot and Education Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Waayel died shortly after the blast, a senior government official said. Sports Minister Suleyman Olad Roble was among the injured, the official added. Two journalists, one from Shabele Radio and another from Al Arabiya television, and a doctor were also killed, a source at the hotel said. AFP photographer Mohamed Dahir sustained slight injuries. "We were waiting outside the conference room when there was a huge explosion. I found myself on the ground in the middle of the smoke and screaming," said Dahir. "I went to get my camera, and that's when I saw the bodies of the three ministers." New EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the "cowardly attack" and promised to seek a coordinated international response to Somalia's woes. "I condemn in the strongest terms possible this cowardly attack against civilians including students, doctors and journalists, In Kampala, the acting head of AMISOM, the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, Wafula Wamunyini, said the attack "was intended to intimidate and blackmail the TFG. We condemn this incident in the strongest terms." Thousands have been killed in Mogadishu in recent years as Islamists battle for control of the capital. Muslims "must" unite all over the World and pray for the appearance of al Mahdi (r.a.) the Savior of mankind the descendant of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. |
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