At least 276 killed in Somalia bombing
The most powerful bomb blast ever witnessed in Somalia’s capital killed 276 people and injured about 300 others, an official said early Monday, making it the deadliest single attack in Somali history.
The death toll from two truck bombs in Somalia’s capital rose to almost 300 Sunday, as the deadliest attack in the country’s decade-long war with Islamist extremists signaled that the insurgency is far from defeated despite years of U.S. counterterrorism operations.
At least 276 people died, nearly all killed by the first bomb, which exploded Saturday outside a hotel near a busy intersection in Mogadishu, sending a plume of smoke into the sky that could be seen from across the city. The second truck bomb killed a few more people nearby.
The Somali capital is a frequent target of attacks by al-Shabab, an extremist group linked to al-Qaida, but residents said they quickly discerned that the twin blasts were of a different order of magnitude.
A large swath of a city block appeared to be wiped out, and a tower of charred automobiles could be seen at the bombing site.
A BBC reporter said people were trapped under the rubble of the Safari Hotel. Throughout Sunday, bodies were being carried from the rubble.
Somalia’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, declared three days of national mourning.
The government blamed the carnage on al-Shabab, but the group has not claimed responsibility.
“Today’s horrific attack proves our enemy would stop at nothing to cause our people pain and suffering. Let’s unite against terror,” Mohamed said on Twitter.
Somalia has been battling al-Shabab insurgents since 2007, with the help of 22,000 troops from the African Union and a U.S. counterterrorism campaign that has expanded under President Donald Trump.
For years, drone strikes were the centerpiece of the U.S. military strategy, carried out with the expecation that the militant group would dissolve if its leadership was vanquished. That has not happened.
Although the U.S. operations forced insurgents from territory they once controlled, they have not curbed al-Shabab’s ability to launch deadly and frequent attacks in Mogadishu, mostly targeting restaurants, hotels and places where officials gather.
It’s unlikely, though, that Sunday’s attack will result in any substantial American military buildup there. As in other unstable parts of Africa, the U.S strategy in Somalia has been to support allied forces by sharing intelligence, providing training and equipment, and conducting precision airstrikes — but not doing the fighting for them.