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by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
30 November 2006
MOGADISHU (AFP) - At least 12 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack near the seat of the weak Somali government, which is on the brink of war with powerful Islamists, police and witnesses have said.
Police said Thursday two explosives laden vehicles had detonated at the Boynunay checkpoint on the eastern edge of the town of Baidoa, while witnesses insisted that only one, a Toyota saloon car carrying four people, had blown up.
Meanwhile, Islamist commanders in Mogadishu and in the Bay region where Baidoa is located said the attack had been aimed at an Ethiopian military position and that at least 24 Ethiopian soldiers had been killed.
"There were two suicide cars full of explosives," Somali police commander General Ali Hussein told AFP, adding that 12 people were killed in the blasts, including one of his officers, the bombers and occupants of a nearby vehicle.
But he denied any Ethiopian troops had been involved, saying that aside from the police officer at the checkpoint and the bombers, the other casualties were all Somali civilians.
Witnesses at the scene, however, said they believed the toll was closer to 27 dead and that only one car had actually detonated, destroying the other two vehicles.
"The suiciders were only using one car, the other two cars were victims of the blast," said Mukhtar Hassan, who lives nearby.
"I was near the checkpoint and before we knew what was going there was some kind of fire and then a huge blast from a Toyota Mark II," he told AFP.
Another witness, Afweyne Yasin, also said only one car had exploded and said som 27 bodies were being removed from the chaotic scene.
The checkpoint is closely guarded by Somali authorities who keep close watch on those entering and leaving Baidoa, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, and the only town held by the government.
Security has been especially tight there since a failed mid-September suicide car bomb attempt to assassinate Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, which was believed to be Somalia's first-ever suicide attack.
The government has blamed the September 18 incident on the Islamists, who denied responsibility but have since declared holy war on Ethiopian troops in and around Baidoa protecting the government.
Hussein said the car had been driven to Baidoa from Mogadishu but made no further comment about who might have been behind the attack.
In Mogadishu, a senior Islamist security official said the bombing was an attack on an Ethiopian military post and an Islamist commander in the Bay region said it was carried out by mujahadeen or holy warriors.
"There was an attack on Ethiopian military post in Baidoa," the Islamist official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "What we know is that at least two dozen were killed."
The Islamist commander in Bay, Mohamed Ibrahim Said Bilal, told AFP the attack was the work of "Islamic suicide bombers" and claimed that some 40 people had been killed.
Witnesses said one person had gotten out of the Toyota shortly before it blew up and Hussein said his officers had taken a single suspect into custody.
"We have captured one survivor," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from government officials or from Addis Ababa to the attack, which came hours after the Ethiopian parliament authorized the government to take "any legal action" against the Islamist threat to it.
Lawmakers adopted a resolution that called the Islamists a "clear and present danger" to Ethiopia and gave approval for the government to combat it, ratcheting up fears for war that many fear could engulf the region.
