By Guled Mohamed
Sunday, June 03, 2007
"A security officer stopped the vehicle and it detonated," said one witness who gave his name as Ismail. "I saw so many wounded people. I can't tell if anyone was killed." It was not immediately clear if Gedi was at his home at the time.
Ismail was among a number of civilians who sought safety inside the prime minister's compound after the blast.
"The guards are not letting anyone out," he told Reuters by telephone. "An Islamic school was badly damaged in the explosion. No one knows what happened to the children inside."
Gedi's interim administration is struggling to impose its authority on the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.
Near daily attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian military allies are blamed on remnants of a defeated Islamist movement who have vowed to wage an "Iraq-style" insurgency.
On Friday, CNN said U.S. air strikes targeted an al Qaeda suspect in northern Somalia, and on Sunday a regional official said six Islamist fighters, including an American and a Briton, had been killed in gun battles and the U.S. attack.
Source: Reuters, June 03, 2007