A-Shabab controls much of the capital in a country without a stable government since 1991 [File: EPA]
The Somali government says 10 anti-government fighters have been killed by their own bombs after the devices they were preparing went off prematurely in the capital, Mogadishu.
The fighters died in two separate incidents while preparing a car bomb, the information ministry said on Saturday.
"They are three Pakistanis, two Indians, one Afghani, one Algerian, and two Somalis, [and] a leader who was in charge of praying for suicide bombers before they were dispatched," the ministry said in a statement.
Al-Shabab has yet to react to the Somali government's claim.
Witnesses said heavily armed men belonging to al-Shabab, a group alleged by US officials to have connections to al-Qaeda, cordoned off the area, preventing people from reaching the scene.
"We don't know what caused the explosions but the house where it hit has totally collapsed and I saw one burned body ... under the rubble," Adan Yusuf, a witness, said.
Another witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said everybody had heard the loud explosions but dozens of al-Shabab fighters had barred access, so it was not possible to know how many casualties there were.
Police arrested two men who had been guarding fighters digging a hole at a bridge in Mogadishu for the roadside bomb and confiscated a bag with materials for making explosives, the government said.
Food aid 'confiscated'
In another development, Somali officials said, al-Shabab has intensified its campaign to stop humanitarian supplies distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) by issuing tough warnings against people who work with the aid agency.
The group has confiscated large quantities of food aid in the past 24 hours from local traders they accused of being contracted by WFP, the officials said, and also burned some of the food they collected from warehouses in Mogadishu.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/08/201082262043413966.html
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