Post date: May 05, 2013 5:24:13 PM
A car bomb hits a convoy of cars carrying Qatari officials while driving through the centre of Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Sunday (May 5), killing eight Somalis, officials say.
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (MAY 5, 2013) (REUTERS) - A suicide bomber hit a convoy of cars in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday (May 5), carrying a visiting delegation of Qataris, who were travelling in the Somali interior minister's bullet-proof vehicle, officials said.
The attack killed at least eight Somalis. A security officer told Reuters those travelling in the convoy were "safe" without going into further detail."More than five people have died and there are more wounded. The car bomb targeted the Somali Interior Minister's convoy but the minister survived,"Mogadishu's District Commissioner Abdie Mahamoud Dhabaray said.
Witnesses said a suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into the convoy. The blast tore through the busy 'Kilometre 4' road junction in the centre of Mogadishu's commercial and administrative district.
Fatima Nor, who saw the blast, said she was shocked by the scene.
"I have seen a lot of people lying on the ground and most of them are wounded and crying," she said.
Gunfire rang out immediately after the explosion as the convoy's security guards fired into the air to disperse onlookers.
The Islamist rebel group al Shabaab said it was behind the attack and threatened further strikes against Somalia's government, which it called a "puppet" of Western powers.
The al Qaeda-linked rebels have kept up a campaign of guerrilla-style attacks since the army and peacekeepers pushed them out of bases in the city.
Qatar has been forging closer political ties with Somalia in recent years as it seeks to expand its influence in the Horn of Africa region.
The chairman of Mogadishu's Hodan district, where the blast occurred, told reporters at the scene eight people had been killed and five wounded, most of them civilians.
Sunday's bomb was a stark reminder of two decades of civil strife in a country where the central government depends heavily on a 17,600-strong African Unionpeacekeeping force for its survival.
While there has been a significant improvement in the coastal capital since African Union peacekeepers drove the Islamist al Shabaab group out of the city in 2011, the attack showed the relative ease with which the militants can still strike.
Some of Mogadishu's major roads were closed last week after security officials received a tip-off about an imminent attack, but were re-opened on Saturday.
The state of Somalia's security forces will top the agenda at conference in Londonon May 7. Britain and Somalia are hoping to use the event to drum up more international support at a time when al Shabaab are weakened as a fighting force but can still inflict devastating strikes.
Civil war after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 left Somalia without effective central government and awash with weapons. The turmoil opened the doors for piracy to flourish in the Gulf of Aden and deeper into the Indian Ocean.