AT LEAST 29 people have died in a wave of explosions across northern Somalia as suicide bombers took the country's bitter civil war to regions once considered havens of stability.
Two United Nations workers died in a blast in Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway republic of Somaliland.
"We are still counting the bodies," said Ismail Adani, a spokesman for the Somaliland government where bombers also hit the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace. He said at least 19 people had died and that the death toll could rise.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but the choice of targets and simultaneous suicide bombings in neighbouring Puntland suggested elements of Somalia Islamist insurgency were to blame.
Two intelligence facilities in the northern Somali region of Puntland were also attacked.
The two suicide bombers and a security official died in the attack, and five other security officials were wounded, said Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of Somalia's northern port city of Bossaso. The region is a hotbed of abductions and piracy.
Bruno Schiemsky, an analyst based in Nairobi, said the Shabaab - an extremist wing of the Islamist movement - was behind the bombings.
"My contacts picked up the Shabaab moving explosives into Puntland and Somaliland two months ago," he said. "Training for suicide bombings started nine months ago."
Somalia has been without a fully-functioning central government since 1991. The country has been dominated by warring clans and armed gangs, creating years of anarchy. In the past two years, a weak interim government has struggled to impose its authority on the country.
It has suffered severe setbacks at the hands of Islamist insurgents. Ethiopian troops, sent to protect the government, are deeply unpopular among many Somalis and viewed as an occupying force.
Somaliland and Puntland have managed to isolate themselves from much of the violence, forming their own autonomous administrations.
Yesterday, eyewitnesses said guards outside Somliland's presidential palace opened fire on the attackers preventing them from entering the compound.
However, one car did manage to breach a heavily-fortified office complex used by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) before exploding next to one of the buildings.
Dawn Blalock, spokeswoman for the UN's Somalia programme in Nairobi, said: "There are known casualties as well as deaths, but the numbers are currently being verified."
The UNDP is one of the main channels for donor money reaching Somalia. The programme is spending millions of dollars each year in supporting the transitional federal government and its security services - providing a possible motive for its Islamist opponents to attack.
Meanwhile, regional leaders were meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to assess the government's record. Five east African presidents from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development said Somali rulers should appoint a new cabinet within two weeks.
Under the terms of a constitution adopted in 2004, elections are due to be held next year, but no one believes that will be possible.