Saturday, June 20, 2009

UN Condemns Terror Attack That Killed Somali Official

The U.N. Security Council on Friday slammed the suicide attack that killed the security minister and several others in Somalia and reaffirmed its full backing to the lawless country's transitional government.

The council's 15 members "strongly condemn the suicide bomb attack in Beledweyne which killed Somali Minister of Security Omar Hashi Aden along with community leaders and other innocent Somalis," said a statement read by Turkey's UN Ambassador Baki Ilkin, who chairs the body this month.

The council also strongly condemned the recent increased fighting in Somalia and "reiterate their continued and full support to the Transitional Federal Government, its efforts to achieve peace, security and reconciliation in Somalia."

Thursday, Aden, a key member of Ahmed's embattled transitional administration, was among 20 people killed when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a hotel in Beledweyne.

The attack, the deadliest since an alliance of hard-line insurgent groups launched a military push in early May to topple Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the war-torn country's internationally backed president, also left at least 30 wounded and drew a barrage of international condemnation.

Friday, gunmen also shot dead a lawmaker in the capital, Mogadishu, in the third killing of a high-profile government official in three days, as Somalia descended further into chaos.

About 300 people, may of them civilians, have been killed in the six-week-old battle and more than 125,000 displaced, according to U.N. figures and casualty tolls compiled by AFP.

Source: AFP

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