Maritime aircraft and attack helicopters took part in the attacks early in the morning on the mainland, an EU spokesman said.

The EU is the main donor to the Somali transitional government. It is also trains Somali army troops, and is reinforcing the navies of five neighboring countries to enable them to counter piracy themselves. The long coastline of war-ravaged Somalia provides a perfect haven for pirate gangs preying on shipping off the East African coast.

“This action against piracy is part of a comprehensive EU approach to the crisis in Somalia, where we support a lasting political solution on land,” said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Since December 2008, the EU has kept 5-10 warships off the Horn of Africa in an operation known as Atalanta. NATO has a similar anti-piracy flotilla known as Ocean Shield, and other countries — including the United States, India, China, Russia, and Malaysia — also have dispatched naval vessels to patrol the region.

The EU naval force is responsible for the protection of World Food Program ships carrying humanitarian aid for Somalia, and the logistic support vessels of the African Union troops conducting operations there. It also monitors fishing activity off the coast of Somalia, which has been without a functioning government since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.

In March, the EU adopted a more robust mandate for its naval force, allowing it for the first time to mount strikes against pirate targets on Somalia’s “coastal territory and internal waters.” At the time, officials said the new tactics could include using warships or their helicopters to target pirate boats moored along the shoreline, as well as land vehicles or fuel tanks used by the pirates.

The EU did not say which member nation’s forces carried out Monday’s raid.

But two months ago, the Atalanta force was joined by French amphibious assault ship Dixmude. The 21,000-ton ship, the largest to serve with the EU mission, is capable of acting as a mobile operating base for 16 choppers — including Tigre helicopter gunships — significantly adding to the reach of the naval force.

_______

Guled contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia.

.

With the militants gone, Somali teens and boys are bingeing on entertainment systems like Sony’s PlayStation, a development with both positive and negative aspects.

Some parents say the video games are helping to keep teens off the street, which in turn lowers the chances they might be recruited by al-Shabab. But many teens admit to skipping class to practice their gaming skills.

“I spend half of my day here. The video games are fascinating,” said Abdirizak Muse, a 16-year-old who dropped out of his Mogadishu school in early 2011 after al-Shabab militants dug trenches around it.

Among the positive changes in Mogadishu since al-Shabab’s ouster are new restaurants, a vibrant beach front, the reopening of the national theater and video-game parlors.

Mohamed Deq Abdullahi, a father of two teens, watched his boys play a soccer video game in a sweltering parlor on a recent sunny day. He sees the boys’ new hobby as a beneficial development.

“This is his daylong activity because I don’t want him get bored and go to war,” Abdullahi said. “The busier they stay the more tired they get and the more they ignore violence.”

During the Islamist uprising in 2006 that gave way to the al-Shabab militia, schools were prime recruitment sources for militants seeking to bolster their ranks. Hundreds, likely thousands, of children were lured into combat.

While video-game shops where teens can pay a fee to play by the hour are popular, the minority of more affluent Somalis are buying game systems for home. Muse Haji, a father of six, bought a system for his kids.

“For us it’s a choice between the lesser evil and the bigger evil,” he said. “Instead of my children going out and being radicalized and used as human bombs, it’s better for me that they stay at homes and play games.

“We focus on nonviolent games such as car racing, soccer and some educational games,” he added.

Haji said that like all children of this generation, his children are fanatics about technology, a positive change from generations past when kids were more interested in firing weapons and joining war.

At a video game shop in the Wardhigley district of Mogadishu, dozens of kids waited in line earlier this week to get a chance to play. The shop charges the equivalent of 10 cents for 15 minutes of play. The atmosphere is eerily quiet except for the beeping, whooshing and cheering emanating from the games.

“I have been here almost an hour to wait for my turn. I will play a game of soccer with my friend again,” Shafici Osman, 14, said with an air of desperation as he watched his friends play. “I like coming here every day. I am either playing or watching others play. I am happy because my parents approve, and they give me money to play.”

The sudden popularity of video games has created a strong business opportunity. Arcade owner Ahmed Aden said he has watched his business quickly grow since opening seven months ago.

“We started with two screens and now we have eight. Our business is booming,” he said.

A 2011 U.N. report said that children were being systematically recruited by militants across central and southern Somalia. Schools — both teachers and students — were consistent targets by recruiters, the report said.

The report said some 50 schools suspended operations in south-central Somalia because of growing demands from militia groups as schools were destroyed and damaged during clashes between insurgents and government and African Union troops.

Ali Abdi, a 15-year-old, said he was trained to fight with al-Shabab, but after returning home for a visit his mother wouldn’t let him return to the militia. Abdi’s brother opened an arcade, where Abdi now happily spends his time. He plans to return to school when militants no longer recruit from classrooms.

“Many of my friends are unlucky and have taken part in the violence in the country. Some of them have died. Others are carrying guns around. In some ways, video games have saved my life,” Abdi said.

Eyewitness Fadumo Haji said she saw the carnage.

“They killed innocent and poor people,” she said.

The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. Baidoa was a major base for the group until Ethiopian troops and Somali soldiers seized the key town in February.

“The explosion has targeted Ethiopians and their apostate companions,” the group said in a statement posted on its website.

It continued: “Then they opened fire at the civilians in the market, killing five people on the spot.”

Some 100 soldiers are being sent to Baidoa as an advance team for 2,500 troops soon to be deployed there. The African Union troops will be stationed alongside Ethiopian troops already in Baidoa.

A blast last week in the capital ripped through the national theater, killing 10 people and wounding many more. Among the dead were two top sports officials.

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.

“It was a cowardly act and that will not deter the government from performing its national duties,” Osman said. “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. “Huge smoke made the whole scene go dark.”

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.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the reopening of the theater was a sign that normal life was returning to Mogadishu, “so the fact that al-Shabab chose this site for their attack shows their true stripes.”

He said the U.S. supports the transitional government in Somalia, as well as the African Union mission and the Somali security forces “to return peace and stability to Somalia. And we stand with the people of Somalia as they are trying to build a normal and functioning society.”

Reporters Without Borders said seven Somali journalists were among the wounded.

“Despite claims that Mogadishu is safer with the ousting of al-Shabab, the challenges and dangers Somali journalists face in the capital are still very prevalent,” said Tom Rhodes of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The International Olympic Committee said it was shocked by the attack that killed Aden Yabarow Wiish, the president of the Somali Olympic Committee, and Said Mohamed Nur, head of the Somali Football Federation.

“Both men were engaged in improving the lives of Somalian people through sport and we strongly condemn such an act of barbarism,” the IOC said. “Our thoughts are with the Somalian sporting community who lost two great leaders, and with the families of the victims.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the bombing “sickening” and acknowledged the “difficult moment” for everyone involved with Somalia’s Olympics efforts.

He said he hoped Somalis would honor the memory of those killed by participating in London Olympics this summer.

“At the London Conference on Somalia in February, the international community came together to back the efforts of the Somali people in building a new future for their country. So let us be absolutely clear today. Terrorists and violent extremists have no part in that future,” Cameron said.

“And we will not allow their actions to destabilize the process of political reform through which ordinary Somalis are, for the first time, getting a real say in how their country is run.”

The revival of sports in Mogadishu is an important part of its transformation. Women who lived under harsh rules when al-Shabab held sway can watch sports and even participate. Al-Shabab defectors have put down their guns and are participating in sports leagues.

Despite the advances, al-Shabab has continued to carry out bombings, sometimes with devastating effect. In October, militants detonated a truck bomb outside a government ministry, killing more than 100 people.

Augustine Mahiga, the U.N. special representative to Somalia, said Wednesday’s bombing must not derail Somalia’s progress.

“The reopening of the National Theater is symbolic of the real change that is happening in Somalia,” Mahiga said in a statement. “The city is being rebuilt, culture is being revived and hope is being restored.”

___

Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya. AP writers Michael Astor at the United Nations and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this story.

Turkish Airlines is scheduled to fly to Mogadishu twice a week.

“We thank our Turkish brothers for the assistance and we receive it with an open heart” said Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Civil war and insurgency have forced international airlines to shy away from flying into the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991.

Mogadishu has long been a battleground during Somalia’s civil war. But al-Shabab withdrew from most of its bases in August and recent pushes by the African Union and Somali troops have helped bring partial security to more of the city.