The young woman detonated her suicide belt as Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali was on the podium addressing 200 people at the Somali national theatre on the first anniversary of the launch of Somalia`s satellite TV network.
Somali Olympic Committee president Aden Yabarow Wiish and Somali Football Federation chief Said Mohamed Nur were killed in the blast.
The prime minister, and seven other ministers standing beside him when the young woman set off her explosives, were unharmed.
"There are four dead, including the president of the Olympic committee and the president of the football federation," Abdirahman Omar Osman, the Somali prime minister`s spokesman, told AFP.
Seconds after the blast, chaos filled the venue as the dead and the wounded could be seen slumped on their chairs and lying on the floor while police escorted some of the injured to awaiting ambulances.
At least seven journalists were also wounded, press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders said.
The Islamist Shebab rebels who have carried out similar attacks in the past stopped short of claiming direct responsibility.
"The action was carried out by people who support the Shebab," Sheikh Ali Mohamed Rage, the group`s spokesman, told a pro-Shebab radio.
Somalia`s Information Minister Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed however laid the blame squarely on the Al Qaeda-linked group.
"The cowardly attack was carried out by Shebab non-believers," Mohamed told Radio Mogadishu.
The Chinese-built theatre was re-opened last month by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the prime minister for the first time in 20 years. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
