Somali security minister killed in explosion

updated 4:44 p.m. ET June 18, 2009

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's national security minister and at least 24 other people were killed in a suicide attack Thursday, and an extremist Islamic group with alleged links to al-Qaida claimed responsibility.

President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed accused al-Qaida of being behind the bombing, which also killed a senior Somali diplomat. He did not offer any evidence, but the attack appeared to be another indication that Somali Islamic militants are adopting two tactics long used by al-Qaida: suicide attacks and videos promoting their fundamentalist ideology.

In March, Osama bin Laden, the global terrorist network's leader, urged Somalis to overthrow Ahmed, calling him a tool of the United States in an audiotape that outlined al-Qaida's ambitions in Somalia.

"It was an act of terrorism and it is part of the terrorist attack on our people," Ahmed told journalists in Mogadishu, his country's capital. "Al-Qaida is attacking us."

The African Union, Arab League, the U.N. and a regional grouping condemned the attack in a joint statement.

"This deplorable attack once again demonstrates that the extremists will stop at nothing in their desperate attempt to seize power from the legitimate government of Somalia by force," the statement said.

Fears for the safety of security leaders
The bombing in western Somalia far outside Mogadishu — claimed by the Somali militant group al-Shabab — raised concerns that local insurgents are aiming to take out leaders of security forces to further cripple the country's weak, U.N.-backed government. Analysts say the insurgents have identified suicide attacks and assassinations as the best way to defeat the government.

National Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden was the second senior security official to be killed in as many days. Mogadishu's police chief died during fighting with Islamic insurgents in the capital on Wednesday that saw at least 34 people killed.

"Omar Hashi Aden's death is a huge blow to the government," said Ali Said Omar, director of the Nairobi, Kenya-based Center for Peace and Democracy, an independent research organization that works in Somalia.

The national security minister had become an important figure in the government because he was successfully recruiting militiamen to fight anti-government forces in central and southern regions Somalia where it has few allies, Omar told The Associated Press.

Belet Weyne, where Aden was killed, is the capital of the central Somalia region of Hiran.

Diplomats had described a surge in violence in May as a major push by the insurgents, backed by foreign Islamic militants, to topple the government in Mogadishu. But government forces managed to hold on to the few blocks in the capital they control as well as the air and sea port that are guarded by African Union peacekeepers.

U.S. considers al-Shabab a terror group
During Thursday's suicide attack, witness Mohamed Nur said a small car headed toward the gate of the Medina Hotel in Belet Weyne, then drove into vehicles leaving the hotel and exploded.

Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for al-Shabab, told local radio stations by telephone that his group carried out the attack and that one of its fighters died. "We killed the national security minister and the former ambassador to Ethiopia," said Rage, speaking from an undisclosed location.

The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab has denied that, but its use of suicide attacks has grown.

Before 2007, that terrorist tactic was unheard of in Somalia. But since then, it has occurred at least several times a year, directed at security forces or high ranking officials. In February, al-Shabab claimed it carried out two suicide attacks against African Union peacekeepers, killing 11 Burundian soldiers. More recently, the group claimed a teenage member carried out a suicide attack last month on a military base in Mogadishu, killing six guards and a civilian.

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