Mogadishu, 5 June 2007 - A grenade attack killed four people and wounded six others watching a video in the western town of Baidoa in the latest flare-up in chaotic Somalia, residents said today.

"The hand grenade was thrown at a video show in Baidoa late last night," said Mohamed Ali, a resident, adding that he did not know who the attackers were. "Four people died and six were wounded. The video show was full of people watching an Indian movie at the time," said Ali.

Militant Islamists, who have been fighting the Horn of Africa nation's government, are opposed to western and Indian films which they say promote immorality in the mainly Muslim nation of 10 million people.

During their six-month rule of most of south Somalia last year, they frequently broke up public viewings of films. The grenade attack was the latest in a wave of violence, which also included a major attack on Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu, since the postponement of a national peace conference that had been scheduled to start on Thursday.

Ethiopia has sent troops into Somalia to shore up the government against the Islamist threat.

Source: Reuters