Death toll rises to 358 in blast in Mogadishu

Somali military to launch strikes at extremists

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Thousands of anguished Somalis gathered to pray Friday at the site of the country’s deadliest attack, while the toll rose to 358 and dozens remained missing.

Somalia’s president will announce a “state of war” against the al-Shabab extremist group blamed for the bombing, the prime minister said.

The United States is expected to play a supporting role in the new offensive that President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed is set to launch Saturday, a Somali military official told the Associated Press.

Tageting al-Shabab

Somalia’s army spokesman Capt. Abdullahi Iman said the offensive involving thousands of troops will try to push al-Shabab fighters out of their strongholds in the Lower Shabelle and Middle Shabelle regions where many deadly attacks on Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and on Somali and African Union bases have been launched.

Also Friday, the U.S. military said it had resumed its fight against alShabab with a drone strike.

The extremist group has not commented on last Saturday’s truck bombing in Mogadishu, which Somali intelligence officials have said was meant to target the city’s heavily fortified international airport where many countries have their embassies. The massive bomb, which security officials said weighed between 1,300 pounds and 1,700 pounds, instead detonated in a crowded street after soldiers opened fire and flattened one of the truck’s tires.

Dozens remain missing

Somalia’s information minister Abdirahman Osman said late Friday that 56 were people missing.

Another 228 people were wounded, and 122 had been airlifted for treatment in Turkey, Sudan and Kenya.

“This pain will last for years,” said a sheikh leading the Friday prayers at the bombing site, as long lines of mourners stood in front of flattened or tangled buildings.

Since the election of the country’s Somali-American president in February, the government has announced a number of military offensives against al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, only to end them weeks later with no explanation. Experts believe that has given the extremists breathing space and emboldened them in their guerrilla attacks.

Iman, Somalia’s army spokesman, told the AP that troops recaptured three towns in Lower Shabelle region from alShabab on Friday in preparation for the new offensive.

Somali officials did not give details on what role the U.S. military might play. There was no immediate response late Friday from the U.S. Africa Command.

The U.S. has carried out at least 19 drone strikes in Somalia since January, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.