MOGADISHU, May 23, 2008 - A roadside bomb blast on Friday struck a vehicle carrying African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Mogadishu, causing some casualties, an AU spokesman and witnesses told AFP.

"One of our vehicles was destroyed by a roadside bomb and preliminary information indicates that an old Somali man died but AU forces suffered minor casualties," the spokesman told AFP without elaborating.

Eyewitnesses said they saw four members of the AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM) being carried on stretchers from the site of the explosion to an ambulance.

"I saw an AU ambulance taking four bleeding soldiers from the scene but I cannot say whether they were dead or wounded," said Mohamed Abdullahi, a grocer.

Somali government forces, their Ethiopian allies and AU peacekeepers have been routinely targeted by Islamist insurgents over the past year.

AMISOM has just over 2,500 Ugandan and Burundian troops in Somalia but the deployment falls short of the 8,000 pledged by the pan-African body and has been unable to curb the violence.

Source: AFP