Attackers Blow Up Part Of Bissau Armed Forces HQ

Attackers blew up part of Guinea-Bissau's armed forces headquarters on Sunday, witnesses said, in the latest clash between rival armed factions in the tiny West African country.

A Reuters witness who heard the loud boom of weapons went to the site and saw part of the armed forces headquarters had collapsed. Witnesses at the scene said the blast appeared to have been caused by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Army troops encircled the area and were searching for the assailants, whose identity was unclear. Five wounded people were taken to hospital, the Reuters witness said.

Diplomats and local journalists said the armed forces chief of staff, General Batista Tagme Na Wai, had been in the building for a meeting when the explosion took place but it was unclear if he was amongst the injured.

The impoverished former Portuguese colony has a history of coups and civil conflict. President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira is himself a former general who was elected in 2005.

Military officers ordered two private radio stations in the capital Bissau to cease broadcasting and state television also appeared to have stopped broadcasting.

"For the security of the journalists, you must close the radio station and stop broadcasting. It's for your own safety," armed forces spokesman Samuel Fernandes told reporters at Radio Bombolom, a private station in Bissau.

"We are going to pursue the attackers and avenge ourselves," he said.

Two diplomats in Bissau said they heard a loud explosion coming from the military headquarters, but had no details.

In early January, the armed forces command said militiamen hired to protect the president had shot at Na Wai, who has been critical of Vieira and also served in a military junta that overthrew Vieira in the late 1990s.

A member of the militia denied the shooting had been an assassination attempt, but the armed forces command nevertheless ordered the militia be disbanded.

The 400-strong force had been recruited as Vieira's personal bodyguard by the Interior Ministry after the president was targeted in a machinegun and rocket-propelled grenade attack on his residence on Nov. 23 last year.

Vieira survived the raid, carried out by dissident soldiers.

Guinea-Bissau, whose main export is cashew nuts, is among the poorest countries in the world. Its security has been threatened in recent years by Colombian cocaine cartels using its territory to smuggle drugs to Europe.