Death toll rises to 21 in Somalia suicide attack

By Malkhadir M. Muhumed, Associated Press Writer

– Fri Sep 18, 2009,  5:20 am ET

NAIROBI, Kenya –

The death toll from twin suicide car bombings at the African Union's main peacekeeping base in Somalia rose to 21 Friday, including 17 peacekeepers, an AU spokesman said. It was the deadliest single attack on AU peacekeepers since they arrived in 2007.

 (Al-Shabab Somali fighters) posing as U.N. personnel detonated suicide car bombs Thursday at the peacekeepers' main base to avenge a U.S. commando raid on Monday that killed a key (leader affiliated with the group), Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. Al-Shabab, a powerful group claimed responsibility.

About 40 others were wounded in attack, said Gaffel Nkolokosa (en-koh-loh-KOH-sah), the spokesman for the African Union Mission for Somalia. He said the toll could rise.

A counterstrike from the AU base killed at least seven people.

France said Friday it has evacuated 17 wounded people to Nairobi, Kenya, where they were hospitalized. It did not indicate the nationalities of the injured or the nature of their injuries.

Suicide attacks were virtually unknown in Somalia before 2007, even though the nation has been wracked by war for almost two decades.

Al-Shabab (Movement) controls much of Somalia and operates openly in the capital, confining the government and peacekeepers to a few blocks of the city. The U.S. and the U.N. both support Somalia's government and the African peacekeeping force.

The AU force has long lamented that it is undermanned. Out of a planned 8,000 troops, there are about 5,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and turned on each other. Piracy has flourished off the Somali coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.

Nine Somalia peacekeepers killed in suicide attack

Thu Sep 17, 2009, 10:16 am ET

MOGADISHU (AFP) –

Two powerful explosions ripped through the headquarters of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia Thursday, killing nine soldiers including the Burundian deputy commander in a twin suicide attack by Islamist rebels.

"At least two bombs" exploded at the force headquarters in a fortified compound at Mogadishu airport, the AU said in a statement which condemned what it called a "barbaric attack" in which at least 15 other soldiers were wounded.

"Among those who died is the AMISOM deputy commander Major General Juvenal Niyonguruza," who was about to complete his tour of duty in Somalia, Ugandan army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye said.

The army said the force commander, Ugandan General Nathan Mugisha, was among the wounded in the twin attack, which was claimed by hardline Shebab rebels. Kulayigye said the injuries to Mugisha, who took up his post only last month, were minor.

The circumstances surrounding the attack were unclear Thursday but witnesses said the bombers entered the compound using two vehicles with United Nations markings.

Kulayigye, who said Mugisha was about to host negotiations at the compound, said the bombers had got in "with a group that was coming for talks". He did not elaborate.

At least 15 seriously wounded were to be airlifted to Nairobi and Kampala within hours, according to non-governmental organisation AMREF, which specialises in medical evacuations.

The Shebab, who have vowed to avenge a US raid that killed one of their leaders this week, said they carried out the attacks.

"We have carried out two holy attacks against the enemy and both missions were successful," a senior Shebab official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The enemy suffered badly and we are very happy."

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner issued a statement condemning the attack "in the strongest terms" and reaffirming France's "unwavering support for AMISOM's role and missions for peace and stability in Somalia."

He said Paris was looking at ways to provide rapid assistance to the wounded, including possibly with French military resources in the region.

A witness, Ali Mohamed, said he had seen two bodies brought from the area, adding that they appeared to be Somalis.

Mohamed said one blast hit an area of the base where the peacekeeping force was providing medical services to locals.

Soldiers took up positions near the entrance to the base after the explosions and fired into the air to prevent people approaching, according to another witness, Irbahim Aden.

Clashes erupted elsewhere in southern Mogadishu between insurgents and AU forces backing Somali government troops, witnesses said.

Hardline Islamist militants seeking to overthrow the weak transitional government of Western-backed moderate President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed have repeatedly targeted the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force, made up of troops from Uganda and Burundi.

Since being deployed in the war-riven Somali capital in 2007 the AU force has lost 34 troops.

In the worst attack, a suicide bomber killed 11 Burundian soldiers in February as they unloaded supplies at their base.

Thursday's attack follows a pledge by the Shebab to avenge the killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a top regional Al-Qaeda leader reported killed in an apparent targeted assassination by US forces on Monday.

Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa, was killed when his vehicle was targeted by US helicopters in southern Somalia, according to US officials and Western security sources.