AU Mourns Peacekeeping Commander Killed in Somali Rebel Attack

By Peter Heinlein

Addis Ababa
17 September 2009

The African Union has strongly condemned a suicide bomb attack in
Somalia that killed at least nine AU peacekeepers, including the
mission's deputy commander. An Islamic extremist group said it
carried out the attack at the Mogadishu airport to avenge the death of
one of its leaders.

African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping
paid tribute to the fallen peacekeepers during a meeting with
reporters. He described the attackers as criminal and terrorist
elements determined to undermine the progress made in recent months in
finding a lasting solution to nearly two decades of war in Somalia.

"We
are condemning strongly this attack [perpetrated] against our elements
bringing peace and security to Somalia," he said. "This attack will not
affect the determination of the African Union to do all the necessary
efforts to bring back peace in Somalia."

A further statement
issued later called the attack testimony to the threat posed by
criminal and terrorist elements and their backers, both within and
outside Somalia.

AU officials say the dead included Burundian
Major General Juvenal Niyonguruza, deputy commander of the 5,000 strong
peacekeeping force known as AMISOM. The top commander, Ugandan General
Nathan Mugisha was among the injured.

Witnesses say the
explosives were apparently concealed in two trucks bearing United
Nations markings that were allowed into the peacekeepers' compound at
the Mogadishu airport.  

The hardline Islamist al-Shabab rebel
group claimed responsibility. A rebel spokesman said the attack was in
retaliation for a U.S. military operation that killed an al-Qaida
linked terror suspect Monday in southern Somalia.

U.S.
officials say the suspect had been wanted by the FBI for the 2002
terrorist bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of
Mombasa.