(CNN) -- A male suicide bomber dressed in women's clothing attacked a graduation ceremony in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Thursday, the Somali president said, according to a local journalist.
The African Union said 19 people were killed in the attack, which struck a ceremony being held at Hotel Shamo for Banadir University's medical school. It did not provide a breakdown of the death toll.
The government said three government ministers lay among the dead, and journalists reported that two journalists were killed.
Nine students and two doctors also were killed, according to a professor at Banadir University.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the attack, calling it a criminal act. It urged an investigation.
At a news conference, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed displayed what he said was the body of the bomber, according to a Radio Mogadishu journalist who was there. CNN is not naming the journalist for security reasons.
The president blamed the Islamist group Al-Shabaab for the attack.
The body the president displayed had a beard. The president also showed the remains of the suicide belt and shreds of a hijab -- a garment worn by some Muslim women to reflect modesty -- at the news conference, according to the journalist.
The body the president displayed had a beard. The president also showed the remains of the suicide belt and shreds of a hijab -- a garment worn by some Muslim women to reflect modesty -- at the news conference, according to the journalist.
The government named the three slain ministers as Education Minister Abdullahi Wayel, Health Minister Qamar Aden and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Adow.
Adow, a Somali-American, served as the foreign secretary of the Islamic Courts Union when it held Mogadishu in 2006.
Video of the graduation ceremony showed Dr. Osman Dufle, the country's former health minister, speaking as the camera begins to shake -- apparently from the explosion.
Afterward, Dufle told journalists that he saw a person dressed in black moving through the audience just before the blast, according to the Radio Mogadishu journalist.
Sports Minister Suleman Olad Roble was hospitalized in critical condition, his relatives told local media. Initial reports after the bombing said Roble was killed in the blast.
The journalists killed were Mohamed Amiin Abdullah of Shabelle Media Network and freelance cameraman Hassan Ahmed Hagi, who worked closely with the network.
CNN regularly works with Shabelle Media.
The African Union condemned the attack, saying it would "spare no efforts to ensure that perpetrators of this act and such heinous crimes against humanity being carried out in Somalia" will be brought to justice.
The National Union of Somali Journalists also condemned the attack and said it brought the number of journalists killed in the country this year to eight.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/12/03/somalia.attacks/index.htmlReligion of peace strikes again. Damn those people for trying to make a better life and get an education!