Somalia: Bomb hidden in garbage kills 3

By Associated Press

1 August 2014

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A Somali police officer says a bomb hidden in piles of garbage detonated in the Somali capital, killing three street cleaners.

Capt. Mohamed Hussein said the bomb was detonated Sunday by remote control as women workers tried to remove bags of rubbish from a street corner.

Seven women were also wounded in the attack, Hussein said. It appeared to be a rare attack targeting sanitation workers tasked with cleaning a city known for dangerous ordnance from Somalia’s more than two decades of conflict.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of a previous explosion that killed 21 street cleaners in Mogadishu in 2007 and which was claimed by Islamist extremist insurgents.

Also Sunday, Somalia’s central government executed three men by firing squad, according to military court spokesman Col. Abdullahi Keyse. The three had been convicted of terrorism charges.

The executions came one week after a similar execution of four militants also convicted of carrying out attacks and assassinations in Somalia’s capital.

Human rights groups often criticize the government for public executions. However, the Somali government considers the executions to be deterrents against the militants’ deadly campaign.

One of the executed men was convicted of assisting an attack on the presidential palace in which five people were killed last month. In an interview with state-run television, the man said he had worked for two years for the Islamic extremist rebels of al-Shabab.

Featured Image: Medical personal carry a wounded Somali street cleaner to the operation room of a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sunday, Aug. 3 2014. Somali police officer Capt. Mohamed Hussein said a bomb hidden in piles of rubbish was detonated by remote control in the Somali capital, killing three street cleaners and wounding seven women, in a rare attack targeting sanitation workers. (Farah Abdi Warsameh/ Associated Press)