Somali prime minister escapes blast uninjured

MOGADISHU, Somalia — An explosion killed at least seven people at a soccer stadium in Somalia's capital yesterday, just moments after the prime minister had addressed hundreds of supporters, government officials and witnesses said.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who escaped unhurt, told reporters in Mogadishu the blast appeared to have been an accident. A security official said a militiaman guarding Gedi had detonated one of his grenades.

"I am very sorry for what happened at the stadium. It is an unexpected accident, and I send condolences to the relatives," Gedi said.

Gedi, who was on his first trip home since he took office last year, pledged that the explosion "will not deter us and the international community from continuing our common endeavor to relocating the government back to Somalia."

The transitional government has sat in Kenya since it was formed in 2004 and is opposed by Islamic extremists and some of the country's dozens of warlords. Somalia has been without a central government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, then turned their weapons on each other.

Yesterday's blast happened about 10 yards from Gedi, said Deputy Parliament Speaker Ismail Ilmi Boqore.

Somalia's recent history


July 1960: Independence unifies Somali peoples ruled since late 19th century by Britain and Italy.

Oct. 1969: Army seizes power in bloodless coup. Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre takes control.

Aug. 1990: Rebels topple Siad Barre, who eventually flees.

Nov. 1991: Power struggle between rival clan warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed erupts into violence that kills or injures thousands.

March 1992: Rival warlords sign U.N.-sponsored cease-fire, but Aideed rules out deployment of U.N. troops.

Dec. 1992: Security Council endorses full-scale military operation led by United States. U.S. Marines arrive for "Operation Restore Hope."

Oct. 1993: Eighteen U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian killed and 74 U.S. servicemen wounded when Somali militias shoot down two U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu. Corpses of Americans are dragged through streets by mobs.

March 1994: U.S. mission formally ends.

Aug. 1996: Aideed dies of gunshot wounds.

May 2000 - Aug 2004: Years of peace talks result in transitional parliament under clan power-sharing formula, with Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf elected Somali president.

April 2005: Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi flies to Mogadishu for first time to prepare for Transitional National Government and possible role of foreign peacekeepers.

Yesterday: Gedi, addressing supporters, escapes unhurt after explosion in Mogadishu soccer stadium kills at least seven.

Reuters

Lawlessness has continued to plague Mogadishu despite the formation of the transitional government last year, the 14th attempt at government in nearly as many years.

Col. Abdi Hassan Awale, the police chief in the last government, who is working with Gedi's security officials, said seven people were killed in the blast.

Witnesses and hospital officials said three others died on their way to or at the hospital and that another was killed by a vehicle leaving the scene.

Awale said a militiaman hired to protect Gedi's entourage appeared to have been responsible for the blast.

"It was an accident that happened after one of the private militiamen's grenades exploded," Awale told reporters at a news conference with Gedi.

Political adviser Abdurahman Ali Osman told reporters: "As far as we are concerned, it was a bomb. Nobody knows who did it, the reason or motivation behind it. It was not an attack on the prime minister. It is just instigators who would like to see the instability of Somalia."

The new government has come under growing pressure from foreign governments and donors to return home, although Somalia is still a patchwork of fiefdoms run by rival warlords.

The lack of safety in Mogadishu has been the main argument made by Gedi and his allies against moving the government back to the capital. They would prefer to first relocate from Kenya to the relatively safer Somali cities of Jowhar and Baidoa.

But others, including influential warlords in the government, insist the administration must return to Mogadishu, the country's most dangerous place. The transitional constitution stipulates that it must be the capital.

Abdullahi Yusuf, Somalia's transitional president, has asked African and Arab states to supply 7,500 troops to help disarm the militiamen roaming Mogadishu since warlords overran the country in 1991, ousting military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

But militant Islamists and influential warlords have vowed to attack troops from the so-called frontline states of Kenya, Djibouti and longstanding rival Ethiopia if they are deployed.