Saturday, September 07, 2013
At least 18 people were killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday when two blasts ripped through a busy parking lot next to a restaurant, police said.
“There were two heavy explosions at a parking lot near the National Theatre,” police officer Mohamed Adan told AFP.
“At least 18 people were killed in the attack,” said Mohamed Dahir, another police officer. An AFP reporter said he had seen 12 bodies at the scene of the attack.
Police and witnesses said the first blast was a car laden with explosives that was parked by a restaurant, the Village, close to the theatre.
“Minutes after the bomb went off, I saw severed flesh flying past,” said Idris Yusuf, who was in the restaurant at the time of the attack and who sustained slight leg injuries.
Nearby buildings were destroyed by the blasts, he said, and passers-by came running over to help the victims.
The second blast, which followed minutes later, was a “suicide bomber who blew himself up in the crowd of civilians who rushed to the scene of the first blast,” Ahmed Weli Said, a Somali government security official said.
The National Theatre re-opened in 2012 after two decades. Just weeks later, Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents struck, with a suicide bomber blowing herself up and killing two of the country’s top sporting officials who were attending an event there.
Somalia’s embattled government, selected in November in a UN-backed process, was hailed at the time by the international community as offering the best chance for peace in Somalia since the collapse of the central government in 1991.
A 17,700-strong African Union force fighting alongside the national army has forced Shebab fighters from several towns in the past two years.
Shebab fighters, who have claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks, remain a potent force, however.
Their most brazen recent attack was a suicide commando assault on a fortified UN compound in the centre of Mogadishu in June that killed 11.
- Large shipment of narcotic khat seized at Edmonton International Airport – EJ
- NSA spying may give Somali men new trial – U-T San Diego
- Amina was smuggled into Eastleigh estate for Sh25,000 – The Standard
- Somalia’s al Shabaab claim twin attacks that killed 18 – AFP
- Somalia blasts hits Mogadishu’s Village restaurant – BBC
- Female genital mutilation: ‘Mothers need to say no’ – The Guardian
- Hydrocarbon development: International oil firms set eyes on Somalia – Afrique en Ligue
- Somalia polio outbreak climbs to 160 cases – The Global Dispatch
- For the sake of Somalia, Barclays must not close its money transfer system – The Independent
- Destabilization fears over Somalia’s first oil deal – UPI
- Bombers strike restaurant in Somali capital, at least 15 killed – Reuters
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