Officials killed in Somalia theatre blast
Al-Shabab claims responsibility for suicide bombing by woman that killed heads of country’s Olympic and football bodies.
Published On 4 Apr 2012
Al-Shabab rebels have claimed responsibility for an explosion at Somalia’s newly reopened national theatre in Mogadishu that killed at least four people, including two of the country’s top sports officials.
Abdirahman Omar Osman, a senior adviser to the Somali prime minister, told Al Jazeera that at least four people were killed and dozens wounded in the blast on Wednesday.
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“It was a surprise and shock to us that a suicide bomber could come near Abdiweli Mohamed Ali [the Somali prime minister] who was giving a speech for the relaunch of the national theatre,” Osman said.
He added: “I am shocked and saddened by the attack, but luckily the prime minister was not harmed in the incident.”
‘Targeted infidel ministers’
The dead included the president of Somalia’s Olympic committee and the president of its football federation, according to Shafici Mohyadin, the federation’s secretary.
“We were behind the theatre blast. We targeted the infidel ministers and legislators, and they were the casualties of
today,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesperson for al-Shabab’s military operations, told the Reuters news agency.
| Al Jazeera’s Peter Greste says Somali government lacks policing capacity to maintain security within Mogadishu |
Abbas Abdi, a journalist in Mogadishu, told Al Jazeera that a suspected female suicide bomber had detonated explosives at a celebration for Somali TV where the Somali prime minister, and other government officials were present.
The reopening of the theatre on March 19 had been hailed by the government as signalling a marked improvement in security in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country.
But al-Shabab rebels, who pulled out of the capital last August, have continued to strike targets in the heart of the coastal city using roadside bombs, mortar and suicide bombers.
Ambulance sirens wailed as they rushed people to hospitals after the blast.
Al-Shabab said on March 14, after one its suicide bombers struck at the presidential palace, that more attacks would follow.
The presidential palace has come under mortar attack several times in the last two weeks. The bombs have mostly fallen short, killing civilians.
Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies