At least 23 people in addition to the bombers were killed in five suicide car bomb attacks Wednesday in two northern Somali breakaway states, officials said. Three suicide car bombs struck the presidential palace, the United Nations Development Program's compound and Ethiopia's diplomatic representation in Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland. No group immediately claimed responsibility. But suspicion fell on Islamist al-Shabaab insurgents who have often launched attacks further south to coincide with international efforts to end turmoil in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.
The car bombers struck as Somalia's interim government leaders met regional heads of state in Nairobi. The four-year-old administration is under pressure to end the chaos and share some power with moderate opposition figures. "We have counted about 19 people, including the secretary of the palace, who were killed in the attacks," a Somaliland police official told AFP.
A local medical official spoke to at least 28 wounded admitted in hospitals after the blasts.
An Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP in Addis Ababa that four Ethiopians were among the victims in the bombings of their representation.
Two other simultaneous suicide car bombs struck two separate buildings housing anti-terrorism centers run by the Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) in the port city of Bosasso. Puntland security officials said six members of the PIS were wounded in the attacks.
The president of Puntland, Mohamoud Musa Hirsi Adde, had told reporters that the six had died in the blasts but he was later corrected by one of his aides.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer told reporters in Nairobi that the deadly coordinated suicide car bomb attacks against key targets in the two Somali breakaway states Wednesday have the markings of al-Qaeda. "Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they have the markings of al-Qaeda," she said at a press briefing after attending a summit on Somalia in the Kenyan capital.