276 dead in Somalia’s deadliest bombing
MOGADISHU: At least 276 people have been killed and 300 injured by a massive truck bomb that tore through a busy shopping district of Mogadishu, the government said Monday, mak- torn Somalia.
Desperate residents of the capital searched for news of missing relatives after the monster explosion on Saturday afternoon destroyed several nearby buildings, leaving victims burned beyond recognition.
“Somalia Federal government confirmed that 276 people were - ed were admitted at the different hospitals in Mogadishu,” the country’s ministry of information said.
operation” under way, the ministry said in a statement, adding that there would be “national mourning and prayers for the victims” in the coming days.
Police official Ibrahim Mohamed told Agence France-Presse that many of the victims were “burned beyond recognition” in what he described as “the deadliest attack ever.”
an emergency center had been set up in the capital for people to seek information abut their loved ones.
“It has been more than 24 hours now and we don’t have any traces or information about the sister of my friend, we can assume she is amongst the horribly burned dead bodies,” said Abdulahi Nuradin, who was helping in the search.
“We went to several hospitals to seek any information but no to avail, the family is now 99 percent convinced she is dead, I saw so many severed pieces of human even look at them,” he added.
Worst attack
claim of responsibility, but the Shabaab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda, carries out regular suicide bombings in Mogadishu in its bid to overthrow Somalia’s internationally-backed government.
In February, a suicide car bomb after Shabaab fighters threatened a “vicious war” against the newly elected President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, widely
Saturday’s blast, the worst in Somalia’s history, came six years after Shabaab militants were pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union and Somali troops.
While they were also pushed out Somalia the militants still control rural areas and launch attacks on military, government and civilian targets in Somalia, as well as terrorist raids in neighboring Kenya.
- dent I can remember,” the deputy speaker of the Somali Senate Abshir Ahmed said in a Facebook post after visiting the Medina hospital where many of the victims had been taken.
Saturday’s blast was widely condemned, including by the United States, Britain, Canada, France,
Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes “with medical supplies”, adding country is a leading donor and investor in Somalia.
‘ Targeting innocent people’
mourning as he visited the attack site and then met with some of the wounded at a nearby hospital.
attack carried out by Al-Shabaab against innocent civilians that government targets,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
- lent elements are ruthlessly and indiscriminately targeting innocent people.”
Mohamed also visited those wounded in the blast and said the horror of the attack was “unspeakable.”
when someone comes to the dead body of their relative and cannot recognize them.”
Hundreds of people, chanting anti-violence slogans and wearing red or white bandanas around their heads in a show of grief, took to the streets of Mogadishu on Sunday to condemn the deadly attack that has shocked Somalians.