Somali Theater Bombing Kills 10, Shatters Calm Two weeks ago, Somalia's National Theater reopened for the first time in 20 years for a concert that drew an audience in festive colors in a city trying to rise above war. A welcoming banner proclaimed: "The country is being rebuilt." On Wednesday, the theater was turned into a scene of screams, chaos and blood when a suicide bomber attacked another high-profile event, killing 10 people, wounding dozens and shattering a tentative peace in the capital of Mogadishu. The blast occurred as Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali stood at the podium to deliver a speech. He was unharmed, said government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman, but the president of Somalia's Olympic committee and the head of its soccer federation were among the dead. The government said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab used its official Twitter feed to claim responsibility for the bombing. The al-Qaida-linked organization said explosives had been planted in the theater before the event, but an Associated Press journalist at the scene said there was no large blast crater, making a suicide bombing more likely. The prime minister will energize the government to eliminate the terrorists. Omar Jamal, the charge d'affaires and first secretary of Somalia's mission to the U.N., said in New York that the bombing was an attempt to assassinate Ali. The prime minister was sitting among a group of officials, and the suicide bomber was in an adjacent row, trying to figure out which one was her target, when Ali got up and went on stage to speak, Jamal added. "It clearly shows that al-Shabab is still active and a real threat to the lives of government officials," he said. Fighters belonging to al-Shabab were pushed out of Mogadishu in August by government and African Union troops after two decades of violence that have gripped the Somali capital. Since then, sports leagues have blossomed, markets have appeared and Western-style restaurants have sprung up, marking a long-awaited revival of the seaside capital. The National Theater was refurbished and reopened with a concert of singing, guitar-playing and drums on March 19 that drew hundreds of people and was broadcast live on TV. Wednesday's ceremony was part of that rebirth of entertainment, celebrating the first anniversary of the start of a national TV station. "The blast happened as musicians were singing and spectators were clapping for them," said Salah Jimale, who attended but received only scratches from the bombing. Amid the screams, nervous soldiers outside fired into the air to disperse crowds gathered around the theater. A man wounded in the head and chest tried to sit up but suddenly collapsed and died. Shoes and blood-splattered cellphones were scattered on the floor of the theater, which can accommodate 2,000 people and is partly open to the sky. An old woman in tears ran toward a policeman, saying: "My son was in there." The policeman stopped her. She sat down and cried, but later ran inside, where she learned her son had died. Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service who provided the death toll, said the wounded included the national planning minister. At a nearby hospital, nurses led stumbling patients into operating rooms.