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Explosion kills three cops
16/08/2007 17:38 - (SA)
Mogadishu - A roadside explosion killed three Somali policemen on Thursday in the latest spate of attacks to rock the Somali capital, said witnesses and police.
The blast, which also wounded an unknown number of people, completely mangled the police vehicle in which the officers were driving in a northern Mogadishu district, said witnesses.
Abdirashid Mursal Ali said: "The bodies were discovered under the destroyed vehicle."
Police officer Mohamed Duale confirmed the explosion, but declined to give details. Other witnesses also confirmed the attack.
Islamist insurgents and clan fighters had been blamed for such ambushes since their movement was toppled from the capital early this year by a joint Somali government-Ethiopian force.
Somalia 'plagued by instability'
The force along with African Union troops in Mogadishu had been unable to quell the near-daily attacks that had killed thousands of civilians and displaced hundreds of thousand others.
Captain Paddy Ankunda, the spokesperson for the at least 1 500 AU peacekeepers from Uganda, warned of a looming catastrophe if no medical assistance was given to civilians.
He said: "We receive more than 300 (wounded) per day and more than 2 000 per week here in our health facility and we don't have enough medical assistance for them.
"There is significant need for medical aid in Mogadishu and if this is not met then there could be catastrophe."
Home to about 10 million people, Somalia, had been plagued by instability that had defied more than a dozen peace initiatives since the 1991 overthrow of former dictator Siad Barre.
More than 1 000 clan representatives from all over the fractious Horn of Africa country had been gathered in the restive capital since July 15 for a reconciliation conference sponsored by the interim government.
The meeting was boycotted by the government's main Islamist foes, who were planning their own meeting in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, next month.
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