Suicide bombers target UN in Somalia

Source: Agencies  |   2008-10-30  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SUICIDE bombers struck a United Nations compound and several other targets in northern Somalia yesterday as international leaders in neighboring Kenya held talks about the deadly crisis in Somalia. At least 22 people died in the attacks, officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but in the past Islamist rebels have launched such strikes to coincide with UN-led efforts to end the turmoil in this impoverished Horn of Africa nation.

"We are still counting the bodies," said Ismail Adani, a spokesman for the government of the breakaway republic of Somaliland, where bombers hit the UN compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in the capital, Hargeisa. He said at least 19 people had died in those attacks and that the death toll could rise.

Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin's secretary died in the blast, but the president was not hurt, Adani said. Kahin said in a radio broadcast that it was too early to tell who was behind the attacks.

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, a Hargeisa resident. "I had to leave to spare myself this ugliness. It is a woeful day."

The UN confirmed that its compound 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 UN's Somalia program in Nairobi, Kenya. Suicide bombers also attacked two facilities in Puntland.