Somali suicide bombing kills 3 Cabinet ministers

Hiiraan News reported that Somalia's fragile and dim future faced another setback on Thursday, when a male suicide bomber dressed as a woman, killed 23 and wounded 40 more.

The bombing took place at the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu ending a graduating ceremony for medical students of the local Banadir University, which was also being attended by a number of governmental authorities.

Witnesses said that the attack seemed to target governmental officials.

Three of the victims were ministers while most of the others were innocent students who were about to graduate. Education Minister Abdullahi Wayel, Health Minister Qamar Aden and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Adow died. As students were take their steps of their long road to education, someone decided to blast them all.

"Forty people with shrapnel wounds, including students, journalists, and medical doctors, have been hospitalized today. Six people died inside the hospital," said Dr. Ali Yusuf, director of Median Hospital.

Among the other dead includes two professors and two journalists. Some 50 other students were reported to have serious injuries.

Although aurthorities have reasons to believe that Al-Shabab, an Islamic militant organization close to Al Qaeda, is behind the bloodshed, the extremist group has denied any responsibility.

The spokesman for al-Shabab, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, denies responsibility for the attack, suggesting it was the product of a feud within the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government.

From other reports I've read in VOA and other news sources, this attack has been one of the deadliest to hit Mogadishu for several months.

Somalia has been without a government since the late 1990's when the civil war broke out. It has since been facing some extreme setbacks with terrorist groups and warlords.