20091214

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Students and teachers were back in class at Mogadishu's Benadir University on Monday, determined to continue lessons despite a suicide bombing at their medical graduation ceremony that killed 22 people.

Somalia's government blamed the December 3 attack on al Shabaab insurgents and said it was carried out by a 26-year-old Danish citizen of Somali descent. He entered the function disguised as a veiled woman before blowing himself up near the podium.

Three government ministers and 10 members of Benadir's faculty and students were among those killed. At least 35 people were injured, including five medical professors.

"I am happy and unhappy today," student Fatuma Hussein said in a classroom at the university, which reopened at the weekend. "We've restarted studies, but our top teachers aren't available. I was so sad when I saw what happened to our doctors."

The rebels had no interest in learning, she told Reuters, "but they enjoy killing the ones who are being constructive".

Al Shabaab, which the United States says is al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of Africa state, denied being behind the bombing. But few Somalis believed them, and the U.N. envoy to Somalia said it was "outrageous" to suggest anyone else was to blame.

Western security agencies say the country has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who use it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.

From his bed at Nairobi's Aga Khan hospital, where he was rushed for treatment, Dr. Mohammed Mohamud, dean of Benadir's medical college, told Reuters he was certain al Shabaab leaders had masterminded the carnage.