Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The violence follows a surge in fighting in the chaotic African naton during March and April that killed at least 1,670 people and sent at least 400,000 fleeing the capital as the government and its neighboring Ethiopian allies tried to quash an Islamic insurgency.
An unidentified person threw a bomb into a small movie theater in Bardheere, killing four people and injuring 20 others as they watched an Indian film, said police chief Mohamed Yare.
Yare said police do not know who was responsible for the explosion or whether it was tied to another blast at a different theater Monday. No casualties were reported in that incident.
Meanwhile, two people were killed in the port town of Kismayo when a man who was making explosives to blast hillsides for rocks accidentally set off an anti-aircraft shell, said police chief Ibrahim Khalif. Three others were wounded in the explosion, Khalif said.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The government was set up in 2004, but has failed to assert any real control.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the British Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday that security in Somalia has improved significantly and he wants to withdraw his troops as soon as possible.
Meles said from Addis Ababa that the improvements have made it possible for African Union peacekeepers to do their job and he expects that the African countries that had promised troops would soon send them. The AU said it needs at least 6,300 more troops to keep the fragile peace.
Ethiopia withdrew some soldiers in January but has been unable to completely pull out because the African peacekeeping mission has not yet arrived and the Somali government remains threatened by insurgents linked to the Council of Islamic Courts,
The group ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six quiet months last year. They were ousted in a swift operation with the help of troops and helicopter gunships from Ethiopia and U.S. special forces.
The U.S. has accused the group of ties to al-Qaida, which the courts have consistently denied. The militants reject any secular government, and have sworn to launch an Iraq-style insurgency.
Source: AP, May 15, 2007