Three suicide car bombers, among them a veiled woman, killed themselves and three companions at a police checkpoint outside Somalia's government base of Baidoa, a senior official and a police officer said Thursday."Three cars have arrived at government checkpoint and as the police tried to check them, they exploded," Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle told The Associated Press. "The three drivers were killed on the spot and three others who were with them," the minister said by telephone. "We have captured three who were with them who have tried to flee. The dead include non-Somalis, they are al-Qaida supporters."
A female suicide bomber wearing a veil detonated herself in one of the vehicles, said a police officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said four civilians were taken to a Baidoa hospital.
Another policeman at the scene, Mohammed Ahmed Mohamud, told The AP the three captured men appeared African but not Somali. There have been numerous reports of foreign Islamic radicals coming to Somalia to join a holy war. No one claimed responsibility.
On Sept. 18. a suicide car bomber tried to kill President Abdullahi Yusuf. The president escaped unharmed; 11 people were killed in the explosion and a subsequent gunbattle, including Yusuf's younger brother. The transitional government blamed the Sept. 18 car bombing on extremists within the Islamic movement. The group denied it was behind the bombing and no one has claimed responsibility.
Associated Press Writer Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu contributed to this report.
I hope he's not a made-up person.
| Ditto. P.S. to a5089: when posting, please edit out all the non-germane drivel that the Roooters reporters insist on sticking into every story. Thx, AoS. |