Mogadishu (ANTARA News/AFP) - The death toll from an attack on Somalia`s newly reopened national theatre by a female suicide bomber last week has risen to six, a Somali minister said on Sunday.

Somalia`s Olympic Committee president Aden Yabarow Wiish and Somali Football Federation chief Said Mohamed Nur were among those killed in Wednesday`s bombing in Mogadishu, which was claimed by Al-Qaeda affiliated Shebab rebels.

Health Minister Abdulaziz Sheikh Yusuf said the death toll was now six, excluding the bomber, after initial reports said four people had been killed.

The woman detonated her suicide belt as Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali was addressing 200 people at the theatre on the first anniversary of the launch of Somalia`s satellite TV network.

The prime minister and seven other ministers at the ceremony were unharmed.

"I sympathise with the families of those people killed in the attack and my ministry is also very much concerned for the welfare of the wounded," the health minister told AFP.

The Shebab have been fighting for five years to topple the Western-backed government, but under pressure from African Union and government forces they have retreated from their fixed bases and reverted to guerrilla tactics.

Somalia has lacked an effective central government for years, allowing armed groups, pirates and extremists rebels to thrive and establish control in vast regions. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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