A suspected bomb blast near a busy Mogadishu market on Tuesday killed five women, the latest victims of Somalia's unceasing violence that has killed more bystanders than combatants. Residents said an explosive device was apparently detonated by the burning of garbage in the city's central Howlwadag area.
"Five died. I could not count the wounded. They were all women who were cleaning the streets," said Hawa Ibrahim, a cleaner who witnessed the blast. "We will stop the clean-up exercise. No one is willing to die for cleaning the street."
Businesswoman Hawa Jama described an "ugly scene". "I could not count the dead. I just glanced immediately and ran away for my life," she told Reuters.
The seaside capital has been hit by near-daily insurgent attacks targeting government troops and their Ethiopian military allies that are blamed on an ousted militant Islamist movement. The government is the 14th attempt at bringing order to anarchy since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.