Saturday, 12.05.2009, 12:07am (GMT)
A huge explosion which rocked Puntland's commercial capital Bosasso on Tuesday evening killed at least 2 people and wounded 25 others mostly Ethiopians, residents and hospital sources told Newstime Africa. Residents who were reached for comment by this press said that unidentified assailants in a small car threw a hand grenade at a cinema in the city center where people mostly from Oromo community of Ethiopia were watching films.
"Two Somalis standing nearby were killed by the bomb explosion while 25 others including six other Somalis were wounded" a resident in Bosasso Muse Idiris told this press by telephone. The wounded people are being treated at the Bandar Qasim hospital in the city, as sources from the hospital say that nearly half of those wounded people are in serious medical condition.
The assailants escaped and no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but police sources say that investigations are under way. Bosasso, which is about 1505 kilometres north east of the capital Mogadishu is the commercial and largest city in the Somali regional state of Puntland.
Although it is the hotbed of notorious pirates Puntland was more peaceful in comparison to the troubled south-central Somali regions, but for the past several months, insecurity has been raging in the region and the information minister, a member of parliament and a high court judge were killed.
The region's authorities have accused IDPs who fled from their homes in the troubled southern regions of being responsible for the deteriorating security situation and ordered them out of the region.
Source: Newstime Africa
