Somali Interior minister escapes deadly attack

March 27, 2009 (NAIROBI) — The Somali Interior minister, Abdulkadir Ali Omar, escaped a deadly blast and his personal secretary killed in a roadside explosion in the capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday.

No group claimed the responsibility of the attack. While the minister refused, during a press conference held shortly after the incident, to accuse any particular party.

Omar stressed the government’s commitment to work for peace and political stability in the troubled country despite the assassination attempt.

He further said that everybody knows each other in Mogadishu and the government knows who is responsible for the attack, but would not accuse any group at the moment.

The hard-liner Al-Shebab Islamist group, which refuses to recognize the election of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, considers his government as a western puppet and has vowed to continue opposing his government. The Islamic Party, a group of other Islamist militias has also rejected the new government.

The UN Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, condemned the attack against the Somali Minister of Interior. “I am shocked by this attack on the Interior Minister and his entourage,” he said in a statement issued late Friday.

The UN official who praised the hard work of the new Somali government to improve security in the country said this attack constitutes an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the country.

“However the new government has the support of the majority of Somalis as well as the international community. The country is on the road towards peace and will not be thrown off course by these actions,” he said.

(ST)