VOA标准英语2009年-Al-Shabab Denies Responsibility for De

Militant 1 Islamist group al-Shabab has denied responsibility for a deadly suicide blast Thursday that killed at least 22 people, including 3 government ministers and a number of Somalia's educated elite 2.

Alan Boswell | Nairobi 04 December 2009

Somali man is carried away from scene of suicide bomb attack during university student graduation ceremony at a local hotel in Mogadishu, 3 Dec 2009

Militant Islamist group al-Shabab has denied responsibility for a deadly suicide blast Thursday that killed at least 22 people, including 3 government ministers and a number of Somalia's educated elite. The nation's embattled president addressed the country Thursday evening to condemn 3 the attack, which the government blames on the Islamist rebels. 

President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed says that targeting the nation's graduate students and intellectuals is a tactic 4 of foreigners and is not a service to the Somali people.

The spokesman for al-Shabab, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, denies responsibility for the attack, suggesting it was the product of a feud 5 within the faltering 6 government.

The bombing at the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu ended a graduation ceremony for medical students of the local Banadir University, which was also being attended by a number of senior government officials.

Eyewitnesses 7 say that the assailant received entry into the event dressed up as a woman.

Five months ago a suicide bombing in the Somali town of Baladwayne killed the government minister of interior security as well as at least 30 others. Then in September, two explosive-laden vehicles penetrated 8 the base of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, resulting in the death of 17 peacekeepers.

The use of suicide attacks is a relatively 9 new tactic in Somalia's long-running conflicts. Analysts 10 believe that al-Shabab is coming increasingly under the control of al-Qaida-linked foreign operatives.

Ibrahim, a civil society activist 11 for the Somali Institute for Research and Development, says that if al-Shabab carried out the attack - for which he says there is little doubt - the group's denial could be due to the shocking nature of Thursday's death toll 12.

Besides the government ministers, many of those killed were graduating medical students and their professors. Somalia's years of turmoil 13 has left it with a very limited pool of educated professionals, a pool which has now shrunk even further.

Ibrahim, who believes that the alienating 14 tactics of al-Shabab has already turned the majority of the Somali population against the rebel group, says that this latest attack is a significant blow to the Mogadishu government. He says that these attacks will only become more and more routine unless the government organizes a strong counter-force against its foes 15.

"They [the government] got the legitimacy 16, and I think they have the support of the international community as well as of the Somali people," Ibrahim said. "But then they keep sitting there, and they are not doing enough. They have to take some offensive and they have to be very strong."

A fourth government minister was injured in the blast. Three journalists were also killed, raising the total journalists killed this year to nine.

A collective statement from AMISOM, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, the League of Arab States, and others on Thursday strongly condemned 17 what it described as a "cowardly" attack on civilians 18 and pledged continued support to the Mogadishu government.