Garowe Online (Garowe)
7 April 2008
Deadly bomb explosions went off in three cities in Somalia on Monday, killing at least 13 people including five members of the government security forces, officials said.
Three people including a police officer were killed when a landmine exploded in the city of Baidoa, 250km northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Police officers opened gunfire in the immediate confusion following the deadly blast, wounding several people including the Deputy Governor of Bay region, Mr. Shine Moallim Nurrow, hospital officials said.
Two children aged 11 and 12 suffered wounds when shrapnel from the explosion reached their home, which is located close to the vicinity of the attack.
A doctor at Baidoa hospital told Garowe Online that Deputy Governor Nurrow is in "good condition" and was recovering at the hospital.
Col. Adan Bariyow, a senior police official in Baidoa, said the police had not apprehended any suspects for the crime, but claimed that one of the suspects planting the landmine was among the three dead victims.
His statement could not be independently verified.
The inland city of Baidoa has been the temporary seat of Somalia's interim parliament since early 2006.
In Mogadishu, the country's national capital, suspected insurgents hurled hand grenades inside a teashop that caters to government soldiers.
Witnesses said three soldiers were killed in the blast and five civilians wounded.
Surviving soldiers opened gunfire at the suspects, who managed to escape in the middle of the chaotic situation, witnesses said.
In a separate incident, a convoy of Ethiopian troops was the target of a landmine that exploded prematurely in Mogadishu, locals said. No one was hurt by the landmine and none of the Ethiopian army trucks damaged.
In Beletwein, a provincial capital in central Somalia, an armored convoy escorting Governor Yusuf Daboged was targeted by a remotely-detonated landmine, our correspondent reported.
Governor Daboged escaped unharmed, but seven others including one soldier were killed in the blast.
More than 20 people with varying degrees of wounds were admitted to the hospital in Beletwein, with tens of family members gathering outside the hospital for most of the day eagerly waiting for news about their beloved ones.
The explosion, which Beletwein residents said was the deadliest ever, targeted Governor Daboged as the armored convoy was passing by a popular location between two city hotels.
Human rights groups based in Beletwein, the capital of Hiran region, condemned the attack as targeting ordinary civilians who frequently gather in the area.
Further, the human rights groups said many schoolchildren would have been killed if the landmine exploded at a time when the children were on lunch break or released from school.
Islamist rebels are believe responsible for Iraq-style guerrilla attacks across the country.
Fresh Ethiopian troops
Thousands of Ethiopian combat troops are reported to be amassing along the border with Somalia, with an unconventional concentration of troops along the central regions of Hiran, Galgadud and Mudug, sources said.
Units of the Ethiopian troops have already deployed inside border towns in Hiran region, although the troops have not conducted any military operations yet, according to villagers.
It is not clear why the Ethiopian government has redeployed thousands more troops along the country's borer with Somalia, but conflicting reports are emerging with regard to the troop buildup.
Some reports said the Ethiopian forces are planning to close the border for yet-unspecified reasons.
But other reports said the government of Ethiopia, in conformity with Somali officials, has ordered the deployment of thousands of troops that would establish permanent bases in the central regions.
In recent weeks, Islamist insurgents have attacked and briefly seized several towns in the central regions, including the Hiran regional capital of Beletwein, a crucial supply route for Ethiopian troops deployed in southern Somalia.
The Ethiopian army invaded Somalia in December 2006 to protect the weak, UN-recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) from collapse.
During a bloody two-week war, the Ethiopians ousted Mogadishu's Islamic Courts rulers and installed the TFG in the Horn of Africa nation's capital.
But the Islamists went underground and vowed to wage a relentless guerrilla campaign until Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somali soil.
The ongoing insurgency has killed more than 7,000 people and displaced over 1 million Somalis from their homes, according to UN estimates.
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