Sunday, June 24, 2007
Police officer Mohamed Darod told AFP the attacker, who escaped into the crowd after throwing the grenade, targeted policemen aboard a patrol vehicle.
"Two policemen were injured one of them critically and the other four people are civilians," Darod said.
Witness Nur Ali said two among the wounded civilians were women selling khat, a mild narcotic leaf.
"I was in my shop when a heavy explosion occurred some meters away from me. I saw two government officers bleeding in their vehicle," Ali told AFP.
Police fired in the air before sealing off the area.
The war-torn Mogadishu has seen a surge in violence since Somali government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, quelled an Islamist insurgency in April after months of fighting that left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
The lawless Horn of African nation has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 toppling of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and the nearly three-year-old transitional government has been unable to assert control.
Source: AFP, June 24, 2007