AfricaNews Monitoring desk
Somalia's Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden has been killed in a suicide car bomb attack north of the the capital Mogadishu. Somali diplomats were also reportedly among at least 10 people killed in the blast at a hotel in Beledweyne. At least 10 people died on Wednesday in an attack in a Mogadishu mosque.
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed blamed al-Qaeda militants for the bombing, but so far no group has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Witnesses said a suicide bomber crashed an explosive laden into vehicles leaving the hotel in Beledweyne, according to BBC.
Most of the victims were burnt beyond recognition after the explosion; a local medic was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"This is part of the attack by al-Qaeda against Somalia," President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told reporters later on Thursday.
Aden had recently moved to Beledweyne, a town close to the Ethiopian border, in an effort to stop Islamist insurgents gaining more ground in Somalia.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991 and some four million people - one-third of the population - need food aid, aid agencies say.
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