Somalia blast kills fighters from Pakistan, India

MOGADISHU: An explosion overnight at a house used by insurgents in the Somali capital killed at least 10 al-Shabab militants, including seven foreign fighters, the Somali Information Ministry said on Saturday. The statement said a premature car bomb explosion might have caused the blast. Three Pakistanis, two Indians, an Afghan and an Algerian were among the dead, the statement said. The government cited “security sources” as the basis for its information. Apart from the government statement there was no other verification of the casualties or circumstances. Al-Shabab is Somalia’s most dangerous militant group, and officials say foreign fighters with experience in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts help train its troops. The US military has no presence in Somalia but the US surveillance aircraft are known to patrol Somali skies. Last September a US strike against a convoy reportedly killed powerful insurgent Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. “We heard explosions within minutes of each other - but in the morning when we woke up no one could figure out the details because the whole neighborhood was cordoned off by dozens of heavily armed al-Shabab militants,” Abdulahi Ibrahim, a Mogadishu resident, said of the latest explosion. ap

(Daily Times, August 22, 2010)