Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Said was in his office at the time when the attacker struck, officials in his office said, but he was not harmed by the blast. (Reuters)
By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES
At least six people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up amongst a group of security officials outside the Somali prime minister's office on Tuesday, AFP reported army officials as saying.
“I saw the dead bodies of six people and several others were injured,” said Abdukadir Ali, a Somali military official who stayed near the scene of the attack in central Mogadishu.
It is believed that many of those killed or wounded were soldiers or police.
“The bomber was sitting near a perimeter wall and detonated himself in the midst of a group of security forces,” Ali added. “There was chaos, smoke and pieces of human flesh.”
Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Said was in his office at the time when the attacker struck, officials in his office said, but he was not harmed by the blast.
“The area was closed down by the security forces... I saw several dead soldiers and others injured being rushed to hospital,” said Mohamed Hussein, a witness.
One guard told Reuters that the man blew up himself near a wall between the Ethiopian embassy and the prime minister's residence.
The two buildings are inside a sprawling compound that also houses the presidential palace.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents have conducted a series of guerrilla style attacks in the capital.
The insurgents have vowed to topple newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in September after being chosen by the country's new parliament, bringing an end to eight years of transitional rule.
Shebab fighters are on the back foot, having fled a string of key towns ahead of a 17,000-strong African Union force, which is fighting alongside Somali government troops to wrest territory off the Islamists.
Ethiopian troops are also battling the Shebab in the southwest of Somalia.
But the Shebab remain a potent threat, still controlling rural areas as well as carrying out guerrilla attacks -- including suicide bombings -- in areas apparently under government control.
War-ravaged Mogadishu was hit last year by a string of bloody bomb attacks, although it has been more calm in recent weeks.
A car bomb in December killed three people, while in November a suicide bomber attacked a restaurant.
Somaliland dismisses UK’s warning
Meanwhile, Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland enclave has dismissed as “baseless” a British government warning of an imminent attack on foreigners, Reuters reported.
London urged all British nationals to leave Somaliland immediately on Sunday, warning of a “specific threat” to foreigners. Ireland issued the same alert to its citizens.
Somaliland’s Foreign Minster Mohamed Abdillahi Omer told reporters on Sunday night that there was no “imminent threat and danger from terrorists” and that the “UK government’s presumption of insecurity in Somaliland is baseless.”
Even before its latest warning, Britain advised against all travel to Somaliland - an enclave that declared independence in 1991 - as well as to wider Somalia, due to the “high threat from terrorism” and kidnapping. On Sunday it said there was an ongoing danger of “kidnapping for financial or political gain, motivated by criminality or terrorism.”
Source: english.alarabiya.net
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