Late Somali Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden

Thursday, June 18, 2009

By Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU, June 18 (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber targeted Somalia’s security minister in his hotel in the central town of Baladwayne on Thursday, witnesses said.

A ministry official in Baladwayne said Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden had survived the strike. However, officials in the regional administration said Aden may have been hit.

Mohamed Abdi, a shopkeeper near the hotel, said smoke was rising from the building, government forces started shooting after the blast and body parts were scattered in the street.

Aden moved to Baladwayne at the start of June with heavily-armed troops in a bid to recapture more territory from hardline Islamist insurgents outside Mogadishu.

Islamist group al Shabaab, which Washington says has links to al Qaeda and has hundreds of foreign fighters in its ranks, has been spearheading attacks on government forces.

Source: Reuters