Explosion in Mogadishu kills 5 pro-gov't soldiers

Five pro-government fighters were killed on Monday after a bomb went off in a newly seized base from Islamist rebel fighters, officials said.

The area where the blast occurred was taken by government forces and allied fighters from Ahlu Sunna Waljama group backed by African Union peacekeeping troops in Mogadishu.

"The bomb exploded as the soldiers were combing the area for planted mines. Five of our troops were killed in the blast. We were expecting such unfortunate events to occur as the militants often plant area they are forced out," Daahir Yonis, a commander with the group told Xinhua.

Somali government forces and its allied troops have gained new grounds against Islamist rebels of Al Shabaab during the latest offensive against the militant group in Mogadishu where government forces seized a key military base of the rebels.

Government officials said the extremist group's militias were pushed back from an important Sufi shrine in the south of the Somali capital where they used as a military base after they exhumed the remains of the revered cleric who they said "was worshiped in contradiction to the Islamic teaching".

Meanwhile Somali parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adam, reiterated that presidential elections and those for the speaker would be held before the ending of the government's mandate in August, heightening growing differences over the issue with the government.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the government of Prime Minister Mohamed Abdulahi Mohamed maintain that the election for the top government and parliament leadership be postponed and that one year extension of the terms for the all branches of the government be accepted by the parliament.

Lawmakers have voted unanimously to extend the expiring mandate for another three years and that elections for the presidency and the speaker of parliament be held before August when the mandate for the government expires.

The international community and sub-regional states in the horn of Africa differ on their stance towards the issue of what to do about the ending of the mandate of the current Somali government that was formed following a peace conference in Djibouti in 2008.

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