The presence of Ethiopian soldiers is still causing unrest

Mogadishu, 15 June 2007 - A grenade thrown at a cinema in the central Somali town of Baidoa has killed five people and injured nine.

Eyewitnesses say the video hall, known to have shown films that have had naked scenes, was packed with people.

In the capital, Mogadishu, unidentified gunmen have thrown grenades at road junctions, killing at least one person.

The attacks come as the United States handed over $4m in development aid to Somalia, some of it earmarked for twice-postponed peace talks.

Government critics say convening the reconciliation conference while Ethiopian troops are in Mogadishu is pointless.

Ethiopian soldiers have been in Somalia since December, when they helped oust an Islamist group that had taken power.

Islamists and Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan are opposed to Ethiopia's presence in Somalia.

'Immorality'

Correspondents say the motive for the attack in Baidoa on Thursday night is not yet known.

But residents in the area had complained to the cinema owner because some of the films being screened had scenes of nudity.

Militant Islamists, who have been fighting the interim government, have often broken up public viewings of Indian and Western films, which they say promote immorality.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the grenade attacks took place at the Sana and Afarta Jaridna junctions in the north of the city.

Eyewitnesses say two Ethiopian soldiers and a civilian were wounded at Sana junction and at least one person was killed and two injured at Afarta Jaridna, where the grenade was hurled at a passing government vehicle.

One government soldier was seen lying in the street, but it is not known if he died.

On Friday morning, Ethiopian troops displayed a wide range of weaponry confiscated during house-to-house searches - an extensive operation started in late April after Ethiopian-backed forces drove insurgents from the northern suburbs.

The weapons - including a large number of rocket-propelled grenades, launchers and mortar bombs - have been handed over to the African Union mission in the city.

But warlord and MP Osman Ali Atto accused the Ethiopian troops of taking money and valuables from his house while they were searching for weapons.

Some 1,600 Ugandan troops are in Mogadishu, the first contingent of a proposed 8,000-strong AU force.

'Dangerous'

Meanwhile, in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, the US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger has presided over an official ceremony to hand over the $4m aid money.

It includes $1.25m for reconciliation conference, a US embassy statement said.

The money is to be channeled through the UN Development Programme and correspondents say no Somali government officials were at the ceremony.

Some analysts have called for funding to go directly to the government to enable it to establish itself and its authority.

"What the government lacks is a lot of funding," Ali Abdillahi, a Nairobi-based adviser to the Somali government, told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"We're talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars - that's what can bring in good governance and development."

For too long the country's finances have been in the hands of the development agencies, Mr. Abdillahi said.

"That's dangerous as far as state security or state development is concerned because the international community should have engaged the transitional federal government directly."

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991.

Source: BBC