United States Mission to the OSCE

A bomb blast inside a crowded theater in Somalia’s capital claimed the lives of at least three people but did not kill the country’s prime minister and other top government officials who were present, media and African military reports said today.

According to an account by the African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM), a female suicide bomber managed to blend in to a crowd that had gathered at Mogadishu’s National Theatre for a celebration for Somali TV’s first anniversary. When she detonated the explosive device, at least three people were reportedly killed, including two major sports figures: the secretary of Somalia’s soccer federation and the president of Somalia’s Olympic committee. Somalia’s prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, was standing at a podium to deliver a speech when the bomb went off but was not injured, The Associated Press reported.

An American State Department official told ABC News witnesses had reported the female suicide bomber appeared to be very young. He said it is still unclear what effect the attack will have on security and other planned events in the nation’s capital. The theater had been considered as the meeting place for an upcoming civic event where 800 leaders from across Somalia are expected to gather.

“This was a despicable crime against the Somali people but it will not stop us [from] achieving peace in Somalia,” AMISOM Deputy Force Commander Brig. Gen. Audace Nduwumunsi said in a statement. “I condemn it utterly and AMISOM stands alongside the government and families of the Somali people who have been bereaved.”

Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP Photo
Somalis collect the body of a man killed in a… View Full Size