afrol News, 18 June - Somalia’s security minister, Colonel Omar Hashi Aden and more than 18 other people were killed by a suicide car bomber north of the capital Mogadishu today.

An attack which targeted Madina Hotel in Beledweyn was reportedly executed by three men with a small vehicle when they entered inside the hotel, where they immediately blew up the bombs in the premises.

Somali President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, blamed al-Shabab, the country’s radical Islamist group, for the attack, to which the group later also claimed to confirm. The guerrilla group has been accused of links to Al-Qaeda.

The attack was another serious blow to Somalia’s weak transitional government following the death on Wednesday of the police chief of Mogadishu, during heavy fighting.

On Wednesday, the government forces and Al Shabab exchanged heavy artillery on residential areas, wounding dozens and killing more than 18 people. The fighting came as government forces moved to retake a government military base northeast of Mogadishu that had been seized by insurgents.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s’ Fund said a new wave of aggression and hostilities against humanitarian operations in Somalia is putting at risk the lives of children and women in the war torn Somalia.

UNICEF has warned that the recent take-over of its compound, in the Central Somali town of Jowhar, by militiamen, after the town came under the control of the Al-Shabaab group last month, remains a barrier to delivery of aid in other parts of the country.

Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991 when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and then plunged the country into anarchy and chaos.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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