Up to 40 killed in Somalia bombing wave

HARGEISA, Somalia, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- As many as 40 people were killed Wednesday and many others injured in a series of suicide bomb blasts in Somalia, local officials in the African nation say.

The nearly simultaneous explosions hit Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, and the city of Bossaso, the commercial center of the neighboring region of Puntland, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Network reported.

Witnesses told IRIN that suicide bombers in cars caused three blasts in Hargeisa. A Hargeisa journalist told IRIN that 39 people died and more than 50 were injured, including four journalists. Somaliland President Dahir Riyaale, however, told reporters that 19 people were killed in the suicide attacks.

The United Nations Development Program compound, the presidential palace and the Ethiopian embassy reportedly were targets of the explosions.

Muse Gelle, governor of Somalia's Bari Region where Bossaso is located, told IRIN that four people, including the two suicide bombers, were killed in the attacks in that city.