Blast kills 4 at Somalia ceremony-witnesses

KISMAYU, Somalia, Feb 11 (Reuters) - An explosion tore through a military ceremony in southern Somalia today.

killing at least four people and wounding more than 20 others, including senior officers and police commanders, witnesses said.

The attack on Kismayu's Independence Gardens was the latest post-war bloodshed in the Horn of Africa nation, which has endured almost daily violence since government forces backed by Ethiopian armour ousted an Islamist movement in January.

''There was a blast and people started running for their lives, all shouting 'bomb!, bomb!','' said Mohamed Daud, who was in the crowd. ''Police started firing in all directions...Most of the wounded are civilians.'' Another witness, Abdulahi Mohamed, said he saw the bodies of two traditional elders, a civilian and a government soldier.

A Reuters reporter at the ceremony, held to welcome visiting military officers to the city, said south Somalia's police chief, Gen. Ahmed Mohamed, was injured in the legs and face by shrapnel.

Four army colonels were among at least 24 people wounded. Many in the crowd were trampled as people fled.

One senior military official in Kismayu blamed Islamic extremists, and told reporters several people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement. ''Al Qaeda was behind this attack,'' he said, without giving any more details.

Speaking by telephone from Baidoa town, the interim government's defence minister, Abdikadir Adan Shire, confirmed people had died, but said he had not yet received a full report.

The government says Islamist hardliners and some of their foreign supporters have launched near-daily mortar, rocket and gun attacks since the religious movement fled to the bush.

MOUNTING VIOLENCE Kismayu, the last town the Islamists held, had been relatively peaceful. But three weeks ago, unidentified gunmen killed an Ethiopian soldier and wounded another in a shootout in the port, which lies 300 km south of Mogadishu.

Most attacks have hit the capital, where residents say some of the recent violence may have been caused by feuding warlords who quickly returned to the city after the Islamists left.

At least three children were killed in Mogadishu yesterday -- one when two rocket-propelled grenades were fired into the restaurant of a hotel hosting reconciliation talks.

The Islamists ruled most of the south by strict sharia law for about six months. The country has been without central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

Diplomats have urged the world to back and fund an African Union (AU) mission to stabilise Somalia, but only about 4,000 troops have so far been pledged of the 8,000 called for.

Uganda was the first country to offer soldiers, but its parliament still has to ratify that. Nigeria and Burundi have also expressed willingness to contribute.

Demonstrators in the capital have threatened to attack any peacekeepers sent to their country, and the mounting violence has stoked fears in many African capitals that an AU mission could be targeted by Muslim radicals.

The United States, which has acknowledged launching two air strikes on southern Somalia last month targeting al Qaeda suspects among fugitive Islamists, is strongly backing the idea of an African force in a nation it fears could be a haven for militants.

REUTERS SY VC1940