Bomb Attack on Palace Foiled

Mogadishu, Somalia

A suicide bomber belonging to the Al-Shabaab militia blew himself up at the gates of the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu earlier on Monday in a botched attack on the African Union Peacekeepers convoy.

The armed bomber who failed in an attempt to jump onto an armoured vehicle in an AU peacekeepers' convoy driving to the palace ground, detonated his explosive device after he threw a grenade at the troops who fired at him to stop him from jumping into the vehicle.

Two government soldiers who were on top of a building at the gate are reported to have been wounded by a shrapnel. The attacker has been identified as a former interior ministry security guard who had defected to the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab.

Another militia group fighting the transitional government-Hizbul Islam-has announced that the GBC TV and radio station it seized on Saturday will now broadcast only Islamic messages. The two groups have targeted the media in their recent attacks, killing journalists and banning of music from the airwaves.

The Al-Shabaab has been staging an armed resistance against the fragile Transitional Federal Government(TFG) in pursuit to instill Islamic rule in the country. It continues to control large tract in the south and central of the country and the capital, Mogadishu.

The 6000-strong AU troops controls only small important parts of Mogadishu. A recent AU summit called for more reinforcement of its forces in Somalia which has never had a government since the overthrow of dictatorial leader Siad Barre in 1991.