Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

■ The final death toll in October’s truck bombing in Somalia’s capital is 512 people.

- By Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The final death toll in October’s massive truck bombing in Somalia’s capital is 512 people, according to the committee tasked with looking into the country’s worst-ever attack.

The final toll is a dramatic increase from previous estimates of more than 350 killed. The committee’s report, obtained by The Associated Press, says another 312 people were wounded in the Mogadishu bombing and 62 people remain missing.

Only a few attacks since the ones on Sept. 11, 2001 have killed as many people, according to the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland.

Somalia’s government has blamed the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group for the Oct. 14 attack, which struck a crowded street. Security officials said the bomb weighed between 1,300 and 1,700 pounds as the extremist group’s bomb-making capabiliti­es grow.

The attack appalled Somalis, with some calling it their “9/11.” The hundreds of wounded overwhelme­d Mogadishu’s hospitals, where many people defied traditiona­l hesitation­s and rushed to donate blood. Bewildered family members picked through the rubble days afterward as hopes of finding survivors faded.

Thousands of Somalis later marched through the capital in defiance against the extremist group, while the Somali-American president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, announced a new military offensive and asked regional neighbors for assistance.

Al-Shabab, which was pushed from the capital years ago but controls large parts of rural southern and central Somalia, often attacks high-profile areas in Mogadishu. Somali intelligen­ce officials have said the massive truck bomb was meant to target the heavily guarded airport, where several countries have embassies.

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