Blast 'bid to kill Somali PM'

2005-05-04 12:10

Nairobi - Tuesday's deadly blast in a Mogadishu stadium was the result of an apparent failed attempt to assassinate transitional Somali prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.

The sources said the explosion that killed at least 15 people was not an accident and occurred when Gedi's security guards stopped an as yet unidentified militiaman from throwing a hand grenade when the prime minister was delivering a speech.

Gedi and other officials have said the blast was unintentional and caused by the accidental detonation of an explosive by a local militia commander's bodyguard, but sources said on condition of anonymity that this version of events was being used to allay public fears and prevent panic.

One source who was in Somalia at the time of the blast said diplomats had been told by one of Gedi's close advisors that the would-be attacker, who died in the explosion, had been stopped from throwing the grenade.

"We were not in the stadium at the exact moment of the explosion ... but a little afterwards, when we were about to leave Mogadishu, one of (Gedi's) advisors told us that it had been an attempted attack," the source said.

"A man had taken out a grenade but was immediately restrained by nearby militiamen," the source said. "He died in the explosion."

In addition to the dead, about 38 people were injured in the blast that occurred on the fourth day of Gedi's maiden tour of the capital aimed at building support for his government and ending a bitter dispute over when and where in Somalia it should relocate from exile in Kenya.

- AFP