MOGADISHU, June 4: A suicide car bomber blew himself up at an Ethiopian military base in Mogadishu on Monday, bringing the day's death toll to at least 10. The incident came as an Islamist website posted pictures of a man who allegedly carried out a suicide attack the day before, aimed at killing Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.
Islamists ousted by Ethiopian-Somali forces at the start of the year have vowed to attack government and foreign forces in Somalia, including Ethiopians and African Union peacekeepers, and recent weeks have seen a growing number of Iraq-style homemade bomb and suicide attacks.
Monday's suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to an Ethiopian base in southern Mogadishu after Ethiopian troops opened fire on him, residents said.
“I saw a car entering the area and minutes later a heavy explosion rocked the whole zone,” local resident Abdulahi Artan Dhore told reporters, adding that one civilian was killed by shrapnel.
A government official, who asked not to be named, confirmed the attack had taken place, adding that Ethiopian troops had suffered no casualties.
Earlier, Ethiopian and Somali forces killed three civilians and wounded five others in response to a failed hand grenade attack, and police killed two after two police officers were shot dead, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, residents living near the main stadium in southern Mogadishu said Ethiopian forces had stopped a man in the street and shot him dead.
“Ethiopian forces asked him to stop as he was trying to pass by, and they shot him once in the heart,” eyewitness Abdulkadir Ali said.
Ethiopian and Somali forces were not immediately available for comment.
Elsewhere in southern Mogadishu, a gunman shot dead two policemen during an operation to disarm civilians in the Bakara market area, and police shot dead two civilians in response to the attack, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, an Islamist website posted a picture of a man who they claimed carried out Sunday's suicide car bomb attack on the prime minister's Mogadishu compound -- the fourth attempt to kill Gedi in a year.
The Al-Mujahid website has in the past been used by fighters from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), ousted from south and central Somalia in December and January.
Prime Minister Gedi, whose interim government is struggling to control the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, blamed Al Qaeda for the attack, in which six of his bodyguards were killed. “The terrorists are still hiding in the country, particularly in Mogadishu, to carry out violent actions like this.—AFP
