Kenyan official: US seeks to join probe into Somalia's suicide bombing

The United States government is seeking to be included in the investigations into the assassination attempt against Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf last month, a Kenyan official said Wednesday.

Kenya's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Moses Wetangula said Washington, which was accused of bankrolling former Mogadishu- based warlords, had requested Kenya, which chairs the seven-nation regional mediating body, IGAD, to allow the United States to join the probe team.

However, the assistant minister said the largely weak Somali government but internationally recognized, has not yet accepted the request.

"The United States government has asked us if they can be allowed to join their IGAD counterparts in the investigations. They have also written to the Somali government. But it's up to the Somali government to respond to the request but our plans as IGAD are still on course," Wetangula told journalists in Nairobi.

"I think what is critical for us at the moment is for United Nations Security Council to lift the arms embargo. This would allow the government to train its soldiers to be able to defend its government and also allow regional countries to send peacekeepers," he said.

Somalia's government has repeatedly called for peacekeepers to bolster its bid to re-establish central rule in Somalia for the first time in 15 years.

The Horn of Africa nation's weak government sought help in September in probing the country's first-ever suicide bombing, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the interim president that officials pin on al-Qaeda.

Source: Xinhua