Eight people have been killed and an unknown number of others wounded in the Somali capital Mogadishu after a hand grenade was thrown in a crowd at the main Bakara Market shortly before the government announced the imposition of an indefinite curfew, residents said Thursday.
"A man threw a grenade at the police who were patrolling and nearly five people were instantly killed. No policeman was hurt, but they started to fire at every direction," Osman Haji, owner of a grocery shop, told Xinhua.
Some people were also killed as a result of the shooting by the police after the grenade explosion. The police would not comment but eyewitnesses said the police started shooting following the attack which was apparently aimed at the Somali security forces at the market.
"Three civilians were killed when the police began to shoot and many more were wounded by the grenade and gunshots," said Ahmed Yasin, a shopper at Bakara, the main market in the south of the restive seaside city.
The police, after the explosion, ordered shop owners at the market to close down their shops and leave the market. People, both shoppers and shop owners, began to flee from the scene.
The news comes only hours before the transitional government announced the imposition of a dusk to dawn curfew in the capital. The National Security Commission decided that from 7 PM until 5 AM a curfew will be emplaced and anyone outside home will be arrested.
The commission chairman said in a news conference in Mogadishu that the security forces will deal with "insurgent elements who operate behind people."
There has been an upsurge of violence since the Somali government announced the postponement of the national reconciliation conference until mid July.
Somalia has been without a central government since the overthrow of late ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991 when the country plunged into chaos until the formation of the current transitional federal government in Nairobi in 2004 as a result of the reconciliation conference there.
(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2007)
