2010-04-18


MOGADISHU, April 18 (Xinhua) -- An overnight roadside bomb explosion targeting a Somali government soldiers killed at least ten people including five soldiers and wounding almost 20 others mostly by-standers in Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

Witnesses said that the remotely-controlled bomb was planted near a police station close to the international airport in the south of the Somali capital Mogadishu and detonated as Somali government troops came near it.

"The bomb killed 5 of the soldiers and wounded eight others while 5 civilians around the vicinity also died as a result of the blast. At least 12 other civilians were wounded," Sahal Guure, police officer told Xinhua.

The wounded were rushed to the near-by hospitals in the government controlled part of the restive Somali capital.

Witnesses, local media reports and medical officials gave the same casualty figures from the explosion.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the assault but Islamist fighters wage near daily attacks on Somali government forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers who are based in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile Islamist rulers in the central Somali town of Jawhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, banned the use of bells in schools to announce the beginning or ending of classes. Islamist officials said bells were used by Christians in churches thus was "un- Islamic influence" in Muslim Somali society.

It was not immediately clear what would be used in substitute for bells which has been widely used in Somali schools for decades.

Islamist rulers have previously imposed the separation of boys and girls in classes in schools and encouraged the teaching of Arabic, the language of Islam, and Islamic studies.

Somalia has been without a strong central government for nearly the past two decades of civil strife following the overthrow of Somalia strongman Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.