Rebels deny carrying out suicide bombing

Mogadishu:  A spokesman for Somalia's Al Shabab rebels denied yesterday that the group was behind a suicide bombing at a graduation ceremony in the capital that killed at least 22 people, including three government ministers.

Students and their parents were among the dead in Thursday's attack, the worst in the failed Horn of Africa state for five months. Suspicion had fallen on the Al Shabab insurgent group which is battling the Western-backed government.

"We declare that al Shabab did not mastermind that explosion ... we believe it is a plot by the government itself," Al Shabab spokesman Shaikh Ali Mohammad Rage told reporters.

"It is not in the nature of al Shabaab to target innocent people."