Suicide bombings on the rise in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 25 (UPI) -- The number of suicide bombings in Somalia has increased during the last three years as a result of an initial 2006 attack, a terrorism expert says.

University of Chicago Professor Robert Pape, who has been studying terrorism since 1980, said since Somalia was introduced first-hand to suicide bombings with a Sept. 18, 2006, attack in Baidoa, the terrorist act has been embraced by militants, Voice of America reported.

Pape said the historic attack that targeted then-President Abdullahi Yusuf was prompted by the government inviting Ethiopian troops to begin military operations in Somalia.

"When you have foreign occupiers viewed as having a different religion, that allows terrorists to paint those occupiers as having a religious agenda to take control of the government and transform the political and social institutions against the wishes of the local population," Pape said.

The 2006 attack soon led to an increase in suicide bombings in Somalia that continues today, including a bombing last week in Mogadishu that claimed the life of a top Somali government minister, VOA said.