Blasts strike key targets in Somalia breakaway states
Posted: 29 October 2008 2045 hrs

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MOGADISHU: A spate of bomb attacks struck high-profile targets in two northern Somali breakaway states – including a UN office and two anti-terrorism centres – according to witnesses on Wednesday.

They said there were casualties both in Bossaso, the economic capital of Puntland, and Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland.

In Bossaso, two suicide car bombs struck two separate offices of an interior ministry body tasked with combating terrorism, an adviser to the president of Puntland said.

"These were suicide attacks. Two car bombs destroyed two centres of the anti-terrorism unit. There are casualties but we have to investigate and we cannot give more information at the moment," Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade told AFP.

According to witnesses, the explosions took place at around 10:30 am (0730 GMT) and at least four other people were badly wounded.

A building of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Hargeysa was targeted in at least one of three near simultaneous explosions that went off at almost the same time as the attacks in Bossaso.

"What we have so far is that there was an attack on the UNDP compound in Hargeysa. We don't have details," a UN official said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the blasts in Hargeysa also targeted the presidential palace and the Ethiopian embassy, which are all in the same neighbourhood.

"Suicide car bombs targeted the presidential palace and the Ethiopian embassy. I saw smoke coming out of the presidential building. I also saw one dead soldier in front of the gate, but I could not get closer," said eyewitness Mohamed Idriss.

Officials could not immediately confirm the targets of the explosions.

A police official said he knew of one employee of Ethiopia's representation who was badly wounded in the blasts.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in the two cities, which had been largely spared by the violence that has rocked southern and central Somalia in recent months.

On February 5, 20 people, most of them Ethiopians, were killed and at least 80 wounded in explosions in the port of Bossaso.

A former British protectorate, Somaliland united with the Italian Somalia in 1960. But it unilaterally broke away and announced independence 10 months after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.

Neighbouring Puntland declared itself autonomous from the rest of Somalia in August 1998 under the leadership of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the current president of the Somali interim government.

The two regions have been relatively quiet recently, except for sporadic clashes between the two over disputed border areas.


- AFP/so