photos: http://www.calanka.com/warka/article2749.htm
MOGADISHU, April 4 (Xinhua) -- At least five people including two sports officials are confirmed dead and 10 others were wounded Wednesday after a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a ceremony at the national theater in the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials and witnesses said.
Top Somali government officials including Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and some members of his cabinet were present at the ceremony at the theater. The prime minister was unharmed.
At a news conference shortly after the blast, the prime minister vowed his government will continue to fight terror and those acts will not intimidate the government from serving the people.
"I am told that four people died in the explosion and others were wounded. The anti-peace elements cannot intimidate us from fulfilling our duty towards our people," Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli told reporters at his office in Mogadishu.
Two senior officials from the Somali Olympic Committee were among five people whom medical officials confirmed dead in the explosion and 10 more were reportedly wounded.
Several local reporters covering the ceremony were also among the wounded, who were rushed to the hospital following the huge blast at the newly reopened Somali national theater after almost 20 years of being closed.
The reopening of the Chinese-built theater late last month was hailed as an example of the growing stability and normalization of life in the Somali capital Mogadishu, following the retreat by radical Islamists from the city.
The Islamist group of Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to continue carrying out similar attacks against government targets and African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Mogadishu.
The radical Al-Shabaab movement, which has recently announced its merge with the international terror group, vowed to carry out such attacks following their retreat from the Somali capital last year, under the pressure of concerted military offensive by AU troops and Somali government forces.
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Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen Press Office said on twitter:
This operation wasn’t carried out by female as they allege but everything was carefully planned & orchestrated by specially trained unit
— HSM Press Office
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