Blast Wounds Somali Interior Minister
By VOA News
26 March 2009
Somalia's interior minister has been wounded by a roadside bomb blast in Mogadishu that killed at least one other person.
Abdulkadir Ali Omar suffered only minor injuries in Thursday's blast. He spoke to reporters soon after the explosion.
Omar indicated he knows who is behind the attack, but declined to name the perpetrators.
Initial reports said the person killed was a bodyguard, but officials say it was Omar's personal aide.
The blast occurred in Mogadishu's Bakara market, long known as a stronghold for anti-government Islamist militants.
Omar is a former militant who joined the government after moderate Islamists signed a peace deal last year. The new president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is trying to make peace with hard-line Islamist groups like al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab and similar groups control most of southern and central Somalia after a two-year insurgency.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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