Suicide bombing kills 22 at Somali graduation

[question everything]

Source: San Francisco Chronicles

A suicide bomber disguised as a woman attacked a graduation ceremony in Somalia on Thursday, turning a rare reason to celebrate into carnage that killed at least 22 people - including medical students, doctors and three government ministers.

The blast was blamed on Islamic militants who have shown a rising ability to carry out sophisticated large-scale bombings against high-profile targets - and highlighted the inability of Somalia's weak government to protect even the small section of the capital it controls. "Today should have been a day of celebration - not mourning," said Somalia's ambassador to Kenya, Mohamed Ali Nur. "The hopes of many parents who eagerly awaited their sons' graduation were recklessly dashed ... cutting short the lives of ambitious Somalis."

Several hundred people had gathered in the Shamo Hotel to watch the 43 medical, engineering and computer science students from Benadir University receive their diplomas when the blast ripped through the festively decorated ballroom.

Before last year, almost two decades had passed since anyone earned a medical degree in Somalia. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell upon al-Shabab, which controls much of the country and has carried out past suicide attacks.





Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/12/04/MN9B1AUJ88.DTL

---

"The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the Somali Red Crescent Society are deeply concerned about the plight of civilians caught up in the fighting," said Pascal Mauchle, head of the ICRC’s Somalia delegation.

"This incident shows once again how important it is to protect medical personnel in armed conflict." The ICRC and the SRCS call on all warring parties to comply with the rules of international humanitarian law, and in particular to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and persons taking a direct part in hostilities and military objectives on the other.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/220224/f874c772d3f3a70649dbc85f2fa75098.htm

and

I was watching CNN yesterday, and then the network news - nothing about this. Only Tiger Wood and the "crashers."

[libodem]

1. This act is almost more

heinous than 9/11. To attack new graduating young doctors when the need is so great is beyond comprehension. They would have helped make so many lives better. This really seems like evil against good. No bombing is okay but this goes beyond the pale. I choke up with tears and sorrow every time this goes through the news cycle. God Almighty, WHY?

[leftynyc]

2. Heartbreaking

That those attacked were just starting out and that so many were heading for professions that can only help the situation in that lawless country is too much to bear. May the perpetrators rot in hell.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Somali rebels deny they carried out suicide bombing

Fri Dec 4, 2009 10:40am GMT MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A spokesman for Somalia's al Shabaab rebels denied on Friday that the group was behind a suicide bombing at a medical graduation ceremony that killed at least 22 people, including three government ministers.

But analysts pointed out that the bloodshed had been a PR disaster for the insurgents, and the U.N. envoy to the country said it was "outrageous" to suggest anyone else was to blame.

...

Suspicion had immediately fallen on the hardline al Shabaab group, which is battling the Western-backed government to impose its harsh interpretation of Islamic law across the country.

"We declare that al Shabaab did not mastermind that explosion ... we believe it is a plot by the government itself," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told reporters. "It is not in the nature of al Shabaab to target innocent people."

Rage said serious political rifts had emerged between senior figures in President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's administration, which controls little more than a few strategic areas of the capital.

"You know there is a power struggle ... that has been going on a long time," the insurgent spokesman said. "We know some so-called government officials left the scene of the explosion just minutes before the attack. That is why it is clear that they were behind the killing."

...

Kamal Dahir, a Somali political analyst based in Nairobi, said al Shabaab has issued its denial very late.

"I think that, after the explosion, al Shabaab commanders were sitting for hours to finalise what to do ... We are all convinced that the nature of the bombing and tactics used were similar to the group's previous attacks," Dahir told Reuters.

"They realised it would turn the public against them, so denied being responsible to keep the little support they have."

In June, al Shabaab said it was behind a suicide bombing in Baladwayne town that killed Somalia's security minister and at least 30 other people. Then in September it struck the heart of the African Union's main military base in Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs, killing 17 AMISOM peacekeepers.

/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5B21M120091204?sp=true