Mogadishu - Insurgent group al-Shabaab on Monday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a military camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu that killed seven people. Sheikh Hussein Fidow, a senior al-Shabaab official, told reporters that a young fighter had driven the truck which exploded at the gates of a military compound on Sunday, killing six guards and a civilian.
Fidow warned that more suicide bombings aimed at government and African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces would follow in the coming weeks.
Somali officials believe that the bomber was most likely a foreign fighter - one of hundreds who have flooded to Somalia in recent months to help fight the Western-backed government.
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Monday called for the international community to help defend Somalia against the foreign fighters.
"I would like to tell the world ... that there are foreigners in the country who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and want to make Somalia like those countries," Radio Shabelle quoted the president as saying.
The United Nations has so far ruled out sending in a peacekeeping force to help the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Islamist insurgent groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam are trying to topple the government of Sheikh Sharif, a moderate Islamist who once worked alongside the insurgents.
Over 200 people, the majority of them civilians, have died since fighting intensified in early May.
Latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR say that 57,000 people have fled north Mogadishu as battles rage in the streets.
Sheik Sharif's government, propped up by 4,300 AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, controls only sections of Mogadishu, while the insurgents hold sway across much of southern and central Somalia.
The peacekeepers do not have a mandate to pursue the insurgents and are instead focused on protecting key positions, including the presidential compound.
The fierce fighting comes despite Sheikh Sharif implementing sharia, or Islamic law - one of the key demands of the insurgents.
The new president, who came to power earlier this year as part of a UN-backed peace process, is too close to the West, the insurgents say.
The insurgency, which began after Ethiopian forces invaded in late 2006 to kick out the Islamic Courts Union, has claimed the lives of over 17,000 people, mainly civilians.
Ethiopia pulled out in January 2009, but in recent days there have been reports that its troops have once again crossed the Somali border.
Ethiopia's long-term foe Eritrea has also been accused of arming the insurgents.
The African Union on Friday added its voice to calls by regional nations for the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Eritrea and also implement a no-fly zone and a sea blockade to stop arms coming in.
Eritrea denied any involvement in the insurgency, instead laying the blame for the chaos in Somalia on regional nations.
Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and is widely regarded as a failed state.
