7 die in Mogadishu bomb attack
2007-03-16 20:52
Mogadishu - A bomb killed seven civilians on Friday near Somalia's capital Mogadishu in the Horn of Africa country's latest violence, said police.
"A heavy explosion went off in the eastern part of town. It was a bomb. It killed seven people and injured one lady who lost an arm," said Ibrahim Dini Isak, police chief of Afgooye, an agricultural town on the outskirts of the coastal city.
"It destroyed two homes completely... The victims were refugees who had fled Mogadishu," he said.
Violence has mounted in the capital since Somalia's interim government and Ethiopia's military defeated an Islamist movement in a two-week war over the New Year.
Insurgents are blamed for near-daily attacks on troops and African peacekeepers, with civilians caught in the crossfire.
UN agencies working in Somalia said this week that more than 40 000 people fled Mogadishu last month alone.