Postby Coeus » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:28 am
More information:
Blast in Mogadishu Kills at Least 65
At least 65 people have died in a suicide attack on a government building near Mogadishu's strategic KM4 junction, witnesses and officials said.
Witnesses said that a car pulled up outside the compound before detonating, devastating the building, which houses offices of seven ministries.
Police spokesman Abdullahi Barisse said that over 100 were injured, including a senior official in the health ministry. He also said the suicide bomber was believed to be a Kenyan citizen. Government workers, civilians, soldiers and students who were taking an examination for a Turkish government scholarship were among the dead.
The area was cordoned off by African Union peacekeepers and Transitional Federal Government forces, keeping at bay wailing women whose relatives were killed, as rescue workers pored over the blast scene.
Militant Islamist group al-Shabaab immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The group has been promising such actions since it pulled the majority of its forces out of the capital, but until now has not delivered on any significant scale, with most of its attacks confined to the vicinity of areas it still largely controls, such as Daynile.
While the government trumpeted al-Shabaab's withdrawal as a major victory, the insurgents said they were going to concentrate on urban guerrilla warfare in Mogadishu. Many were beginning to doubt the group's capability to meet its promise, and there were several failed attempts at IEDs and suicide attacks.
With the blast - which will be the deadliest ever suicide bombing carried out by the group if the casualty figures are correct - and growing actions outside Mogadishu, such as those in the border regions and Dhusamareb, al-Shabaab is demonstrating it is far from the spent force the government is attempting to portray it as.