Somali car bomb kills Ethiopians (BBC)

Two Ethiopian soldiers have been killed by a car bomb in the Somali town of Baidoa on Wednesday evening.

The bomber's target was an Ethiopian military post close to the hotel where the prime minister, Ali Mohamed Ghedi, was staying.

After the attack, Mogadishu-based Simba Radio aired an Islamist insurgent commander's claim of responsibility for the attempted assassination.

Somali forces have raided the radio and arrested its chief Abdullahi Ali Farak.

A reporter at the station said a journalist was also arrested in the raid, and the radio ordered to shut down.

A reporter at the scene says the area has been sealed off since the blast, but eyewitnesses say a suicide bomber driving a car also died.

"The explosion was so deafening and strong it rocked our entire hotel compound," an aide of the prime minister, Mohamed Abdi Haji, told AP news agency.

Mr Ghedi is in Baidoa for what correspondents expect to be a showdown between him and the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, later this week.

Source: BBC