Most of the dead were reported to have been students
Al-Shabab is accused by some of being a proxy for al-Qaeda in East Africa
A bomber dressed as a woman carried out the attack at a medical student graduation ceremony in Mogadishu
Hundreds of people were gathered inside the Shamo hotel in the capital when the bomb went off
The international community condemned the attack, which dealt a huge blow to Somalia's feeble transitional government
Somalia's hardline Islamist insurgents denied Friday that they carried out a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu that killed at least 23 people, including three government ministers.
A bomber dressed as a woman carried out the attack at a medical student graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, which also killed three journalists and left dozens of people injured.
The international community condemned the attack, which dealt an unprecedented blow to Somalia's feeble transitional government, and President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed blamed it on the Islamist insurgency.
But the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement and its Hezb al-Islam allies, who have waged a relentless guerrilla war against the government since May, denied any involvement in the bombing.
"We have heard about that tragedy from the media. On behalf of the Shebab, we are not in anyway involved in that incident," top spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.
Hezb al-Islam leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys condemned the attack, charging the suicide bomber must have been a foreigner.
"I condemn this attack, which is the work of the enemy, and I send my condolences to the family members of those who were killed," he told AFP in a telephone interview.
"This was the work of enemies who want to destroy Somalia's intelligentsia and create a hostile atmosphere in which Somalis cannot reconcile," Aweys added.
Although not the deadliest attack in Mogadishu, the suicide bombing sent shockwaves across the civilian population, the government and the international community.
Hundreds of people were gathered inside the Shamo hotel for a rare celebration in a country which has experienced 18 years of almost uninterrupted civil chaos.
The blast ripped through the crowd, killing the ministers of education, higher education and health.
A medic at Mogadishu's Medina hospital said that, in addition to the dead counted on Thursday, three wounded had since died of their injuries and one more civilian victim was found, raising the death toll to 23.
Three journalists were also among the victims, bringing to nine the number of reporters killed in the restive Horn of Africa country this year alone. An AFP photographer sustained slight injuries.
"We were waiting outside the conference room when there was a huge explosion. I found myself on the ground in the middle of the smoke and screaming," the photographer said.
"I went to get my camera, and that's when I saw the bodies of the three ministers."
Shebab and Hezb al-Islam have so far focused their armed effort on attacking government troops and African Union peacekeepers, who they accuse of spearheading a Western-backed Christian crusade in Somalia.
In his reaction to the bombing, the Shebab spokesman insinuated that the attack was the result of quarrels within the transitional government, caused notably by the reported imminent sacking of senior security officials.
A joint statement from the European Union, the InterGovernmental Authority on Development, a regional body, the League of Arab States, the United Nations and the United States condemned the attack as "cowardly acts of terrorism".
"The horrific attack is another demonstration of the extremists' complete disregard for human life. The fact this bombing targeted graduating medical students - the future doctors of Somalia - is particularly egregious," the statement said.
Thursday's explosion went off in a crowded meeting room at the hotel, where hundreds of people had gathered for a graduation ceremony of medical students.
Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said the male bomber had been dressed in women's clothing, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes".
Officials said Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow were all killed.
Sports Minister Saleban Olad Roble was critically wounded and remains in hospital.
At least three journalists were also among the dead but most of those killed were reported to have been students. More than 60 people were injured.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan, who was at the scene, said it had been a "shocking, terrible scene".
Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has described the attack as a "national disaster".
He described the victims as "dear citizens... unjustly assassinated while carrying out their duty to the nation".
The hotel is often used by the few foreigners - aid workers, journalists and diplomats - who still visit Mogadishu.
Somalia has had no effective government for almost 20 years.
The blast happened in one of the small parts of the city controlled by the weak UN-backed government, just 1km (0.62 miles) from the K4 junction, where the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, Amisom, has a base.
Amisom's acting head, Wafula Wamunyini, said the blast was "intended to intimidate and blackmail" government.
But in a statement, the AU said it would "not deter the resolve and determination of the African Union to support the people of Somalia in their quest for peace and reconciliation".
The students had been graduating from Benadir University, which was set up in 2002 to train doctors to replace those who had fled overseas or been killed in the civil war.
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