From: Ahmed Barlow (abarlow@csec.org)
Date: Thu Oct 30 2008 - 09:13:14 EST
Suicide bombs kill 22 in northern Somalia, UN hit
By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer Salad Duhul, Associated Press Writer
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Suicide bombers struck a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and three other targets in northern Somalia Wednesday, killing at least 22 people in attacks that coincided with international talks in neighboring Kenya about Somalia's political crisis.
Three of the five bombings hit the breakaway republic of Somaliland, one of them exploding at the palace of the regional president. Bombers also simultaneously attacked two intelligence facilities in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland. All the attacks were in the morning.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. But the U.N. and Ethiopia have supported Somalia's weak central government in its battle with Islamic rebels and the rebels have launched such strikes in the past to coincide with U.N.-led efforts to end the turmoil in the Horn of Africa nation.
Witness Ismail Mohamed, 22, said people were screaming and begging for help after the blast at the presidential palace.
"It was a horrendous scene," said Mohamed.
Officials said at least two of the 22 dead were suicide bombers.
Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin's secretary died in the blast at the presidential palace, but the president was not hurt, Adani said. The two suicide bombers and a security official died in the attacks in Puntland, and five security officials were wounded, said Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of the northern port city of Bossaso in Puntland.
Somaliland has long sought international recognition as being its own nation, separate from Somalia. The region is a hotbed of abductions and piracy.
The U.N. compound in Somaliland was hit by a suicide car bomb.
"There are known casualties as well as deaths, but the numbers are currently being verified," said Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Somalia program in Nairobi, Kenya.
Islamic militants have waged an Iraq-style insurgency against Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies for almost two years. The nearly daily mortar attacks and gunbattles have killed thousands of Somali civilians in the capital, deaths that all sides blame on each other.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when clan warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The current government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to protect citizens from violence or the country's poverty.
Ethiopia has troops in Somalia to prop up the weak Somali administration which is battling Islamist rebels.
Somalia's north has tried to sever ties with the chaotic south, which includes the beleaguered capital, Mogadishu. Puntland has a semiautonomous administration.
International leaders, including the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, met Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss Somalia's crisis. Members of Somalia's government, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and some members of Somalia's opposition also attended.
But there were no representatives of the hard-line members of the opposition, who have denounced any talks with the government and are behind much of the bloodshed in the capital, Mogadishu. Al-Shabab, the military wing of Somalia's ousted Islamic movement, has not participated in any talks. The State Department considers al-Shabab, or "The Youth," a terrorist organization.
The meeting ended Monday afternoon with all the participants releasing a statement lamenting the "the lack of unity and unhelpful competition among the leadership" in Somalia and calling for a new Cabinet to be formed within 15 days.
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AP Writers Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu, Somalia, and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Tom Maliti and Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
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