Somalia: Blasts Heard in the Capital Mogadishu Overnight

 (Mogadishu)

27 May 2007
Posted to the web 27 May 2007

Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu

Huge explosions could be heard in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, last night. Residents in Heliwa district, north of the capital, reported that several blasts occurred inside former pasta industrial unit in the area.

No casualties have been reported. The area is frequented by Ethiopian military forces.

One of the residents, who spoke to Shabelle on the condition of anonymity, said what seems to be artillery blasts did occur inside the factory. "But we do not know what sparked the explosions. There are contingents of Ethiopian forces based inside the factory," he said.

A roadside bomb blast killed a ten year old shoe-shiner and wounded four government soldiers yesterday after a military convoy carrying two government officials, deputy mayors of Mogadishu, hit the roadside bomb.

Abdifitah Ibrahim Shaweye, the deputy mayor, said the bomb was remotely detonated as they got closer to area where it was planted. He said several suspects have been arrested.

Witnesses told Shabelle Sunday that a large number of Ethiopian forces could be seen this morning searching houses for weapons and explosives around the area of the plant where the blasts happened.

Meanwhile the leader of the routed Union of Islamic Courts, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, along with former parliament speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, opponents of the Somali transitional government, urged Somalis to wage a war against the government and its Ethiopian military backers, stating that the upcoming national reconciliation conference should be boycotted.

Series of bomb attacks on the Somalia bureaucrats and soldiers have been launched by unknown gunmen since the Ethiopian backed government seized control of Islamic insurgents' strongholds in north of the capital in early May.

Mogadishu mayor, Mohammed Dheere, blamed the leaders of the capital's powerful clan, Hawiye, for instigating violence, threatening action if they did not back off.

The clan leaders, however, denied the claims.