Two explosions rock Somalia’s capital, leaving at least 100 dead – World News
UPDATE 2:10 p.m.
At least 100 people were killed in two car bombings at a busy junction in the capital, Somalia’s president said, and the toll could rise in the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at the site of Saturday’s explosions in Mogadishu, told journalists that nearly 300 other people were wounded. “We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment,” he said.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which often targets the capital and controls large parts of the country, claimed responsibility, saying its objective was to hit the education ministry. It claimed the ministry was an “enemy base” that receives support from non-Muslim countries and “is committed to removing Somali children from the Islamic faith.”
Al-Shabab usually doesn’t make claims of responsibility when large numbers of civilians are killed, which was the case in an October 2017 blast at the same site, but it has been angered by a high-profile new offensive by the government that aims to shut down its financial network. The group said it is committed to fighting until the country is ruled by Islamic law, and it asked civilians to stay away from government areas.
It was not immediately clear how vehicles loaded with explosives again made it through a city thick with checkpoints and constantly on alert for attacks.
Somalia’s president, elected this year, said the country remains at war with al-Shabab “and we are winning.”
The attack in Mogadishu happened on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials were meeting to discuss expanded efforts to combat violent extremism and especially al-Shabab. The extremists have responded to the offensive by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to dissuade grassroots support.
The attack has overwhelmed first responders in Somalia, which has one of the world’s weakest health systems after decades of conflict. At hospitals and elsewhere, frantic relatives peeked under plastic sheeting and into body bags, looking for loved ones.
ORIGINAL 7 a.m.
Two car bombs exploded Saturday at a busy junction in Somalia’s capital near key government offices, leaving “scores of civilian casualties,” police told state media. The attack came five years after a massive blast at the same location.
The Somalia National News Agency cited national police spokesman Sadiq Dodishe on the toll. The attack in Mogadishu occurred on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials were meeting to discuss combating violent extremism, especially by the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab group that often targets the capital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw “many” bodies and said they appeared to be civilians traveling on public transport. He said the second blast occurred in front of a busy restaurant. Images from the scene showed crushed tuk-tuks and other vehicles.
The director of the Aamin ambulance service told the AP they had collected many wounded or killed. One of the ambulances responding to the attack was destroyed by the second blast, Abdulkadir Adan added in a tweet.
The attack occurred at Zobe junction, which was the scene of a huge al-Shabab truck bombing in 2017 that killed more than 500 people.
Al-Shabab often targets high-profile locations. Saturday’s blast occurred near the education ministry, which the extremists stormed in 2015, and the foreign ministry.
Somalia’s government has been engaged in a high-profile new offensive against the extremist group that the United States has described as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations. Somalia’s president has described it as “total war” against the extremists, who control large parts of central and southern Somalia and have been the target of scores of U.S. airstrikes in recent years.
The extremists have responded by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to dissuade support for that government offensive.
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