29/08/08 (B463) Shabelle / Une bombe détruit partiellement un convoi de véhicules de l’armée somalienne. D’importants dégâts et proablement des soldats blessés / Mogadishu landmine blast damages Gov convoy-witnesses (En Anglais – Info lecteur)

A landmine blast has partially destroyed a convoy vehicle of Somali troops in the latest attack by Islamist rebels on government authorities in the anarchic capital later on Thursday, eyewitnesses said.

« As the troops were driving at Bundada Street in Hamar Jajab district all of a sudden a huge landmine blast occurred, the vehicle has suffered damages” Hassan Nor, a resident, told Shabelle.

« Some soldiers appeared as wounded in the explosion, » he added.

Islamist-led insurgents have been waging a growing Iraq-style insurgency against the government, and the Ethiopian troops backing it, since being ousted from control of Mogadishu.

Thousands have died and over one million have been displaced by the fighting, which, along with drought and high inflation, has turned Somalia into what the U.N. has called Africa’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Somalia has been mired in lawlessness since warlords ousted dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. The transitional government is the country’s 14th attempt at restoring central government since then.