Thursday, February 14, 2008
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Yemen's ambassador to Somalia survived a grenade attack on Thursday while attending a ceremony held by members of the Yemeni diaspora in Mogadishu, an aide to the envoy said.Unidentified gunmen hurled a grenade at a school in the Bulo Hubey neighbourhood in south Mogadishu where the party took place, killing one of the guests and wounding two others.
However, Yemeni envoy Ali Masud was quickly escorted away by government troops before he was due to deliver a speech.
"Ambassador Ali Musid attended a ceremony organised by Yemeni diaspora in Mogadishu and while the ceremony was underway a grenade was thrown at the school where the party was happening killing one person and wounding two others," a Somali aide to the embassy, Ahmed Abdi, told Reuters.
"The ambassador is safe and he is now staying at the embassy," he added.
Somalia's interim government and its Ethiopian military allies are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the lawless Horn of Africa country. A local human rights group said 6,500 civilians were killed in the fighting last year.
Somalia was plunged into chaos when warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
(Reporting by Aweys Yusuf; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
Source: Reuters, Feb 14, 2008