Nine Somalia peacekeers killed in suicide attack

AFP) – 4 hours ago
MOGADISHU — Two powerful explosions ripped through the headquarters of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia Thursday, killing nine soldiers including the deputy commander, the Ugandan army said.
The army said the force commander, Ugandan General Nathan Mugisha, was among the wounded in the twin suicide attack, which was claimed by hardline Somali rebels.
"At least two bombs" exploded at the force headquarters in a fortified compound at Mogadishu airport, the AU said in a statement which condemned what it called a "barbaric attack" that injured several soldiers.
"The force commander General Mugisha was hurt and I think the intelligence officer," Uganda's military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye said by telephone from Kampala.
The circumstances surrounding the attack were unclear Thursday but witnesses said the bombers entered the compound using two vehicles with United Nations markings.
Kulayigye, who said Mugisha was about to host negotiations with a rebel group, said the bombers had got in "with a group that was coming for talks". He did not elaborate.
The army spokesman gave no details on the seriousness of the injuries to Mugisha, who took up his post only last month.
The Islamist Shebab rebels, who have vowed to avenge a US raid that killed one of their leaders this week, said they carried out the attacks on the AU headquarters.
"We have carried out two holy attacks against the enemy and both missions were successful," a senior Shebab official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The enemy suffered badly and we are very happy."
A witness, Ali Mohamed, said he had seen two bodies brought from the area, adding that they appeared to be Somalis.
Mohamed said one blast hit an area of the base where the peacekeeping force was providing medical services to locals.
Soldiers took up positions near the entrance to the base after the explosions and fired into the air to prevent people approaching the base, according to another witness, Irbahim Aden.
Clashes erupted elsewhere in southern Mogadishu between insurgents and AU forces backing Somali government troops, witnesses said.
Hardline Islamist militants seeking to overthrow the weak transitional government have repeatedly targeted the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force, made up of troops from Uganda and Burundi.
Since being deployed in the war-riven Somali capital in 2007 the AU force has lost 34 troops.
In the worst attack, a suicide bomber killed 11 Burundian soldiers in February as they unloaded supplies at their base.
The Shebab have vowed to overthrow the weak transitional government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a Western-backed moderate Islamist.
The Al-Qaeda-inspired militants earlier Thursday demanded the French government meet several conditions for the release of a French security agent taken hostage two months ago, including the immediate ending of its support for the "apostate government" and the withdrawal of AU peacekeepers.
Thursday's attack follows a pledge by the Shebab to avenge the killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a top regional Al-Qaeda leader reported killed in an apparent targeted assassination by US forces on Monday.
Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa, was killed when his vehicle was targeted by US helicopters in southern Somalia, according to US officials and Western security sources.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved