Two top sports officials killed in suicide attack

Mogadishu: At least six people, including two of Somalia's top sports officials, were killed when a female suicide bomber struck a ceremony at Mogadishu's national theatre in an attack Islamist insurgents said was aimed at killing senior government figures.

Al Shabab rebels claimed responsibility for the blast yesterday that killed the heads of Somalia's soccer federation and Olympic committee in yet another stark reminder of the fragile security in the capital Mogadishu.

The bombing was also an apparent attempt to kill the prime minister as he spoke at an event to mark the first anniversary of the country's new satellite television channel.

While the Al Qaida-allied militants pulled their fighters out of the capital last August, they have continued to strike targets regularly in the heart of the coastal city using roadside bombs, mortars and suicide bombers.

Witnesses and the African Union said a female suicide bomber was behind the blast in the theatre.

The theatre reopened on March 19 for the first time in two decades, raising hopes the country had turned a corner after being plagued by violence since a dictator was ousted in 1991.

"So far six have died and ten were injured, mostly civilians. The Prime Minister was speaking inside the theatre when the blast took place, but he is safe, unhurt," Prosper Hakizimana, deputy spokesman for the AU's Amisom force, said.

A reporter at the scene said corpses were strewn across the floor and some of the dead were still in their chairs. Ambulance workers were collecting the bodies.

Sirens wailed as the wounded were taken to hospitals.

Al Shabab said it had targeted government officials and lawmakers with explosives planted ahead of the event, and had not used a suicide bomber.

"We were behind the theatre blast. We targeted the infidel ministers and legislators, and they were the casualties of today," Shaikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for Al Shabab's military operations, said.

While the prime minister escaped unhurt at least one minister and a member of parliament were hurt and the country's top sporting officials bore the brunt of the attack.

‘Black day'

"The government sent us four invitation cards. And of the four officials who went, two are dead and the other two injured. It is a black day," Kadija Daher Aden, acting president of Somali athletics, said.

"Many great people have died today," she said.

She said the Somali Olympic Committee chairman and the president of the Somali Football Federation died, while the deputy at the Olympic committee and the chairman for Somali boxing were both injured.

One witness at the theatre said he could see four corpses, including the two sports officials.

A doctor at the Madina hospital said two ministers and a member of parliament were among those hurt.