Toll surpasses 300 in truck bombing

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The death toll in a massive truck bombing in Somalia’s capital surpassed 300 people with dozens still remaining missing, authorities said Monday.

Saturday’s blast also injured nearly 400 people, many badly burned, after the bombing targeted a crowded street in Mogadishu. Somalia’s government has blamed the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, which has not commented on the attack.

As hospitals and families continued to count the dead, nearly 70 people remained missing, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.

More than 70 critically injured people were airlifted to Turkey for treatment as international aid began to arrive, officials said. Nervous relatives stood on the tarmac at the airport, praying for the recovery of their loved ones.

Al-Shabab, which for more than a decade has waged war in Somalia, often targets high-profile areas of the capital. Earlier this year, it vowed to step up attacks after both the Trump administration and Somalia’s recently elected president announced new military efforts against the group.

The country’s leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, has declared three days of mourning and joined thousands of people who responded to a desperate plea by hospitals to donate blood.

The United States has condemned the bombing, saying “such cowardly attacks reinvigorate the commitment of the United States to assist our Somali and African Union partners to combat the scourge of terrorism.” It tweeted a photo of its charge d’affaires in Somalia donating blood. But the U.S. Africa Command said U.S. forces had not been asked to provide aid.

The U.S. military has stepped up drone strikes and other efforts this year against al-Shabab, which is also fighting the Somali military and over 20,000 African Union forces in the country.