Ex-Somali Defense Minister injured in bomb attack

MOGADISHU, June 27, 2007 – A Somali MP and former defense minister was wounded Wednesday by a roadside bomb explosion which killed his driver, witnesses said.

Barre Adan Shire was the latest lawmaker to be targeted in the capital, where violence has escalated since Somali government soldiers, backed by Ethiopian troops, toppled an Islamist movement in January.

Local resident Adan Omar Korey said three other people were injured in the attack.

‘I saw Shire and three other injured people being treated at a medical clinic in Bardere,’ Korey told AFP.

On Tuesday, Trade Minister Abdillahi Afrah narrowly survived a grenade attack, which killed one of his security guards as he drove through the capital.

At the weekend, another lawmaker escaped an assassination attempt when gunmen ambushed him at his home west of Mogadishu.

Shire, who had been critical of the government, was sacked last month alongside former deputy prime minister Hussein Mohamed Aidid, who is currently in exile in Eritrea.

Efforts by the interim government to exert control over Mogadishu have been scuppered by the near-daily insurgent attacks against its officials.

Source: AFP