By Xinhua
Mogadishu : At least five women street-cleaners were killed and many wounded when a bomb exploded here Tuesday as the victims were burning a collection of garbage.
"I don't know whether it was planted or an old one left over from the Somali civil war," said Sidi Aliyo, a porter at the scene.
The Somali transitional government has not officially issued any statement regarding the explosion. But a police officer at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the insurgents might have planted the bomb.
Widespread sanitation work in the war-ridden city has been underway for the past month. Poor women from the camps for the internally displaced that have sprung up in the capital carry out most of the work.
Meanwhile, one person was reportedly killed overnight in the Huruwa district of this city. Residents heard a huge explosion and intense exchange of heavy machine gun fire.
There have been explosions and exchanges of fire between government forces and suspected insurgents despite the indefinite night curfew announced by the transitional government last Friday.