Suicide car bombs hit Somalia peacekeeper base

MOGADISHU – Suicide bombers in explosives-laden cars with UN logos drove into the main base of African Union peacekeepers yesterday, detonating the devices in two massive blasts that blew out nearby windows and shrouded the sky in black smoke.

There was no immediate word on casualties in the attack at Mogadishu’s airport. An Islamist insurgent group claimed responsibility and said the targets were senior African Union peacekeeping officials and Somali government officials who were meeting at the airport.The attack came two days after the group, al-Shabab, vowed revenge for a US commando raid that killed an al-Qaida operative in Somalia.A security officer at the airport said the explosions were caused by two white Land Cruisers with United Nations logos.’The soldiers at the gate assumed they were UN cars and opened the gate for them,’ the security official said, asking that his name not be used because he is not authorised to speak to the media. ‘When the cars entered one of them sped toward a petrol depot and exploded. The other one exploded in a nearby area.’UN spokeswoman Dawn Elizabeth Blalock says the organiation has ‘no confirmation that they were UN cars.’A senior al-Shabab official, claiming responsibility, said: ‘Our holy fighters carried out double suicide attacks on the base of the African Union.’ He asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak publicly. ‘The entire airport shook, and the windows in the offices shattered,’ said Yasin Ahmed, an immigration officer at the airport.The attack was one of the most brazen by al-Shabab and underscored the level of lawlessness and violence to which Somalia has fallen. Many experts fear the country’s lawlessness could provide a haven for al Qaeda, offering a place for terrorists to train and gather strength – much like Afghanistan in the 1990s.Suicide attacks – virtually unheard of in Somalia before 2007 – have increased in Somalia in recent years, although most of the violence in this bloodstained country is from gunbattles and mortar fire. There have been about a dozen suicide attacks since Islamic insurgents stepped up their attacks against the Western-backed backed government in 2007.Earlier yesterday, al-Shabab issued conditions for the release of a French security agent being held hostage, demanding that France stop supporting Somalia’s government and withdraw its warships from anti-piracy patrols.The French government immediately rejected the conditions.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France-Info radio that Paris’ support for the embattled Somali government remains firm, noting he has twice met with Somali President Sheik Sharif and his ministers, who ‘represent Somalia.’Al-Shabab also demanded that France exert pressure to force African Union peacekeepers out of the country and ‘release all the prisoners of the holy warriors held in many areas, which we will reveal later.’The Frenchman, whose identity has not been released, was seized along with another agent July 14 in the capital, Mogadishu. The pair were in the country to train Somali government forces, which are fighting Islamist militiamen.The kidnappers separated the two men. The other agent escaped in August while his captors slept.Al-Shabab vowed on Tuesday to retaliate against Western interests for Monday’s US-led commando raid in rural southern Somalia that left six dead, including Nabhan, one of the most-wanted al Qaeda operatives in the region.The use of a helicopter attack rather than a missile strike from the sea or an unmanned Predator drone, suggests that the US wanted to both prevent any civilian deaths and minimise local anger. But al-Shabab vowed swift retaliation.- Nampa-AP