NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia’s national security minister and at least 24 other people were killed in a suicide attack Thursday in western Somalia, and an extremist Islamic group with alleged links to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed accused al-Qaeda of being behind the bombing, which also killed a senior Somali diplomat. He did not offer any evidence, but the attack appeared to be another indication that Somali Islamic militants are adopting two tactics long used by al-Qaeda: suicide attacks and videos promoting their fundamentalist ideology.
In March, Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to overthrow Ahmed, calling him a tool of the United States in an audiotape that outlined al-Qaeda’s ambitions in Somalia.
“It was an act of terrorism and it is part of the terrorist attack on our people,” Ahmed told journalists in Mogadishu, his country’s capital. “Al-Qaeda is attacking us.”
The African Union, Arab League, the U.N. and a regional grouping condemned the attack in a joint statement.
National Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden was the second senior security official to be killed in as many days.
