4 Killed by Roadside Bomb in Mogadishu

A water tanker was blown up by a remote-controlled roadside bomb killing four people including two Somali government soldiers guarding it, and wounding four passers-by in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses said Monday.

The tanker was on its way near a water point to get water for Ethiopian military base in Yaqshid district in northwestern Mogadishu when it exploded killing two government soldiers and two civilians at the roadside, witnesses told Xinhua.

Four other civilians were severely hurt by the flying debris of the tanker which was extensively damaged by the force of the blast which could be heard throughout the district, witnesses at near the scene said.

Islamist insurgents launch near daily attacks against Somali government troops and Ethiopian forces currently deployed in Somalia since December 2006 when an Islamist movement was ousted from south and central Somalia by joint Somali and Ethiopian troops but the group vowed to wage guerilla attacks on them.

Somali government troops and Ethiopian military commanders in Mogadishu, who usually do not speak to the media about security matters, were not available to comment as calls to government spokespeople went unanswered.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Mogadishu residents have held demonstrations at Wadnaha street to celebrate the withdrawal of Somali government troops from their positions there but the troops retook their positions hours after they vacated.

Shortly after the troops left vehicles have began to the appear in the street and people expressed hopes for return to their homes around the street.

Ethiopian troops vacated their positions in the 30th Streets in the north of the volatile Bakara market Sunday.

Nearly all the main streets in the restive Somali capital are closed to people and traffic since October last year when Somali and Ethiopian troops set up barricades in the streets as a security measure to stop insurgent movement.

Residents around the streets fled their homes as a result and the few mini-buses that operate use back streets to get around the cit