Somalia: AU force on alert after minister killed

Mogadishu: A spokesman for African Union peacekeepers backing Somalia's fragile government says his forces are on high alert a day after a suspected female suicide bomber killed the country's interior minister.

Maj Paddy Ankunda said on Saturday that the AU force is on alert after al-Qaida-linked militants of al-Shabab vowed to carry out "brazen attacks deep inside enemy territory.

Interior Minister Abdishakur Sheik Hassan was killed Friday in an explosion in his home, and a female relative was suspected to be the bomber.

Al-Shabab militants battling Somalia's fragile government use suicide bombers to demoralize the government and their African backers.

Somalia has not had an effective government for two decades.