At least two Somali lawmakers and
three civilians were killed in bombings Tuesday in the war-ravaged Horn of
Africa nation, officials said.
At least two lawmakers were
killed in a suicide attack that targeted a cafe where government and military
officials were meeting, said a parliamentarian who escaped unhurt.
Three people were killed after a
bomb concealed in a civilian car went off in the capital, Mogadishu, police
officer Yasin Hassan said.
Parliamentarian Dahir Amin Jesow
said at least six lawmakers and military officials were among the wounded, some
seriously, in the cafe attack in the town of Dhusomareb, north of Mogadishu.
Somalia has 550 members of parliament.
The officials were part of a
delegation that recently arrived in the region to help form a local government.
Most suicide bombings in Somalia
are carried out by the militant group al-Shabab, which over the last year has
faced increasing military pressure from African Union troops in the capital, as
well as Ethiopian troops in the west and Kenyan troops in the south.
The success against al-Shabab has
allowed the Mogadishu-based central government to start reaching out to regions
outside of Mogadishu, the task the government officials were carrying out
during Tuesday's attack.
Dhusomareb, which lies about 640
kilometers (400 miles) north of Mogadishu, is under the control of a moderate
pro-government force. Somalia's prime minister said last month that al-Shabab
militants are fleeing to northern Somalia in the face of the increased military
pressure.
AP