Somalia says unnamed country behind blast that killed 90

Somalia said an unnamed country helped plan Saturday’s bomb explosion in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people, and added it would investigate the assault with help from a foreign intelligence agency.

The bombing was the deadliest in more than two years in a country wrecked by nearly three decades of hardliners’ violence and clan warfare.

“A foreign country planned the massacre of the Somalis in Mogadishu on 28 Dec 2019,” the National Intelligence and Security Agency said in a tweet yesterday.

NISA said it would use assistance from an unnamed foreign intelligence organisation in its investigation.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing at the busy Ex-Control checkpoint in the northwest of Mogadishu.

However, Mogadishu mayor Omar Mohamoud blamed Al Qaeda-linked group Al Shebaab.

The group carries out frequent bombings to try to undermine Somalia’s central government, which is backed by the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping troops.

The most deadly attack blamed on Al Shebaab was in 2017 when a truck bomb exploded next to a fuel tanker in Mogadishu, killing nearly 600.

Meanwhile, four Al Shebaab militants were killed on Sunday in three US air strikes in two locations in Somalia, the US military said yesterday.

The air strikes came a day after at least 90 people were killed in a truck bombing at a busy checkpoint in the Somali capital Mogadishu, the deadliest attack in more than two years.

The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement that two militants had been killed by two air strikes in Qunyo Barrow and another two by an air strike at Caliyoow Barrow. It said no civilians were killed. The United States carries out regular air strikes in Somalia in support of a weak, United Nations-backed government in Mogadishu, which has fought Al Shebaab for years.

“The US and the Federal Government of Somalia will continue to increase pressure on the terrorist organisation in order to deny them the ability to plot terrorist attacks,” the Africom statement said.

Plans by the United States to withdraw hundreds of troops from Africa could curtail the fight against Al Shebaab and other militant groups across the continent.