Five Suicide Blasts Rock Somalia, 25 Killed

October 30, 2008 5:29 a.m. EST

Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN) - Five suicide bombing explosions hit government and foreign offices in Somalia's two autonomous regions Wednesday killing at least 25 people.

Car bombs detonated in front of the presidential palace, the Ethiopian embassy and the United Nations offices in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland, killing 19 civilians. In Bosasso, capital of neighboring Puntland, two suicide car bombers blew themselves up at 10:30 a.m. inside the compound of the Puntland Intelligence Service office killing six agents.

No one took responsibility for the terrorist attacks in the relatively stable and peaceful Somali regions.

Puntland broke away from the rest of Somalia in August 1998 but its leader, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is the president of the interim government of the rest of Somalia. Somaliland declared its independence in 1991.