Somalia: Danish link to Mogadishu hotel bombing questioned

The popular Somali website, calanka.com published new pictures about the Mogadishu hotel bombing that killed three of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government cabinet members, graduate doctors and civilians who were attending a graduation ceremony for medical college graduates of Banadir University. The photos show the alleged suicide bomber sitting and wearing a black stripe shirt same as the one the alleged bomber was wearing. The calanka.com pictures challenge the Somali government’s version of the story. The Speaker of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Parliament Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nor, ( aka Sheikh Adam Madobe) who told the Wall Street Journal the suicide bomber “ was one of the Somali children who fled from Somalia's war to Denmark, who returned to the country for a suicide attack when he got older. "He was sadly brainwashed by foreigners to massacre his people.”


Three versions Shamo Hotel bombing emerged on December 3. The bomber was said to have been wearing woman’s clothes and was challenged at the main entry to hall where the graduation ceremony was being held, this version of the story went. The other version said the bomber lived in the hotel and easily found his way to the ceremony. The third version is from the father of the alleged bomber who said his son was invited to the graduation ceremony . “His body was lay at the scene of the bombing for two days and people took his body and took pictures of it,” he told the VOA Somali Service.


Since February 2009 the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has faced security failures which cost the life of the former Security Minister Omar Hashi Adan ; the kidnapping of French security advisers in Mogadishu, suicide bombing African peace-keeping forces base in at Halane near Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport and the Shamo Hotel massacre.


The TFG looks set to make tough decisions about choosing between pinning the blame on insurgents and facing its security weaknesses to ensure the safety of, at least, people at venues where government cabinet members and officials are attending for ceremonies.


Source: Somalia Research Report


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