By Sahra Abdi Ahmed
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The attack on Kismayo's Independence Gardens was the latest post-war bloodshed in the Horn of Africa nation, which has endured almost daily violence since government forces backed by Ethiopian armour ousted an Islamist movement over the New Year.
"There was a blast and people started running for their lives, all shouting 'bomb!, bomb!'," said Mohamed Daud, who was in the crowd. "Police started firing in all directions...Most of the wounded are civilians."
Another witness, Abdulahi Mohamed, said he saw the bodies of two traditional elders, a civilian and a government soldier.
A Reuters reporter at the ceremony said south Somalia's police chief, Gen. Ahmed Mohamed, was injured in the legs and face by shrapnel. Four Somali army colonels were also wounded.
Speaking by telephone from Baidoa town, the interim government's defence minister, Abdikadir Adan Shire, confirmed people had died, but said he had not received a full report yet.
The government says Islamist hardliners and some of their foreign supporters have launched near-daily mortar, rocket and gun attacks since the religious movement fled into the bush
Kismayo, the last town the Islamists held, had been relatively peaceful. But three weeks ago, unidentified gunmen killed an Ethiopian soldier and wounded another in a shootout in the port, which lies 300 km (185 miles) south of Mogadishu.
Source: Reuters, Feb 11, 2007
Most attacks have hit the capital, where residents say some of the recent violence may have been caused by feuding warlords who quickly returned to the city after the Islamists left.
The Somalia Islamic Courts Council ruled most of the south by strict sharia law for about six months. The country has been without central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
The latest attacks in Mogadishu killed at least three children on Saturday. One died when two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a hotel hosting reconciliation talks.
Diplomats have urged the world to back and fund an African Union (AU) mission to stabilise the country, but only about 4,000 troops have so far been pledged of the 8,000 called for.