MOGADISHU, 18 February 2005 — One person was killed and six wounded were wounded when a motorcycle attached with a bomb exploded in a populated area, eyewitnesses in the site said.
According to a Shabelle radio station, the explosion, which happened early in the morning, was caused by a device attached to a motorcycle parked outside the former site of the ministry of foreign affairs.
The radio said most of the wounded were soccer players of Somalia’s premier league. The soccer players reportedly had just come from a training camp.
Yasin Hagi, a resident in the area, said that the motorcycle was parked there from Wednesday night.
“We have seen the motorcycle on Wednesday night. No one knows who barked it there,” he said.
The explosion came at the same time when African Union fact finding mission was visiting Mogadishu to prepare for the deployment 7,500 peacekeepers to help disarm militiamen roaming throughout the country.
The mission was due to fly out later yesterday for another part of the country.
Bomb explosions are not common in Somalia.
There has been a string of assassinations of former officers of military and police forces in recent months by unidentified gunmen.
On Feb. 9. BBC program producer Kate Peyton was shot dead in a still unsolved attack in Mogadishu.
