Somalia restaurant blast

A Somali police official said Saturday that a security guard died while fending off two suicide bombers who were trying to storm a popular Mogadishu restaurant.

"There were two suicide bombers who attacked the Village restaurant. The two of them have died and other people... were injured. We are still investigating the casualties," said Abdi Adan, a Somali police officer.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab have conducted similar attacks in the past.

Al Shabaab has been waging an insurgency against the Somali government since 2007. In the past year African Union forces have been able to push the Islamist group out of Mogadishu, but the rebels continue to carry out suicide attacks in the capital.

The Village Hotel, where the attack occured, is owned by businessman Ahmed Jama, who returned to Somalia recently from London. His business, which includes other locations with the name Village, has been a target of Islamist militia.

Saturday's attack took place some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the presidential palace where, earlier in the day, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud hosted the European Union's special envoy for Somalia, Michele Cervone d'Urso.

Uganda threatens to pull peacekeepers

The blasts come one day after Ugandan officials threatened to withdraw their peacekeepers from Somalia if the United Nations Security Council accepts the findings of experts, who allege Uganda supports rebels in eastern Congo.

The UN report accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the so-called M23 rebel group located in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ugandan Security Minister Wilson Mukasa accused the report's authors of "maligning" his country. Uganda has more than 6,000 troops in Somalia, where they comprise the bulk of African forces helping local troops expel Islamist rebels from Somalian urban centers.

hc/rc (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)