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Somalia Truck Bombings Kill Nearly 300, Officials Say Mogadishu Truck Bombings Are Deadliest Attack in Decades
(35 minutes later)
MOGADISHU, Somalia — The death toll from twin truck bombings in Somalia’s capital rose to nearly 300 on Sunday, officials said, as emergency crews pulled more bodies from burned cars and demolished buildings after the Saturday blasts. MOGADISHU, Somalia — When a double truck bombing shattered the night in Mogadishu Saturday, rescue workers began the grim search for survivors that has become all too common as Somalia battles an Islamist insurgency. They picked through burned-out cars and hunted as best they could in a collapsed hotel.
Officials put the attack among the deadliest to hit the capital, Mogadishu, since an Islamist insurgency began in 2007. But it was only on Sunday, as emergency workers pulled body after body from the rubble of a nearly leveled downtown street, that the magnitude of the latest attack came into focus. The numbers of dead surged from 20 on Saturday night to more than 270 and counting, according to government officials. More than 300 people were injured.
The blasts left at least 300 others wounded, and families scrambled to find missing relatives amid the rubble and in hospitals. The death toll — which the information minister on Sunday said was 276 — was expected to increase. “This is the deadliest incident I ever remember since ’90s, after the collapse of the former government,” a shaken Senator Abshir Ahmed said in a Facebook posting.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of national mourning and called for donations of blood and funds to help the victims. The attack came as the United States under President Trump has made a renewed push to defeat the Shabab, Somali-based militants who have terrorized the country and East Africa for years, killing civilians across borders, worsening famine and destabilizing a broad stretch of the region. While no one had yet claimed responsibility for the bombings, suspicion immediately fell on the group, which frequently targets the capital, Mogadishu.
“Today’s horrific attack proves our enemy would stop nothing to cause our people pain and suffering. Let’s unite against terror,” Mr. Mohamed said on Twitter. He added that flags would be flown at half-staff: “Time to unite and pray together. Terror won’t win.” The Shabab — which once controlled most of the city — has lost much of its territory in recent years, the result of attacks by African Union forces, a fitfully strengthening Somali army and increasing American air power. But the group remains a potent killing force, despite years of American counterterrorism operations.
“I call on our citizens to come out, extend help, donate blood and comfort the bereaved,” said the president, who donated blood on Sunday. Some of the militants have proclaimed allegiance to Al Qaeda, while others support the Islamic State.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. As the death toll grew Sunday, the Somali president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, declared three days of national mourning. He donated blood for the victims and asked his fellow citizens to do the same.
Photos published by the local news media showed scenes of carnage and devastation, with bodies and bloodied slippers and shoes scattered in the aftermath. Windows of nearby buildings were shattered. Overturned cars burned in the streets. “Today’s horrific attack proves our enemy would stop nothing to cause our people pain and suffering. Let’s unite against terror,” Mr. Mohamed said on Twitter. “Time to unite and pray together. Terror won’t win.”
Some of the victims died in their cars and in public transportation vehicles. On Sunday, fires were still burning at the scene of the bombings. Senator Ahmed, deputy speaker of the upper house of Parliament, wrote on his Facebook page that the director of one hospital had told him at least 130 bodies there were burned beyond recognition.
“There was a traffic jam, and the road was packed with bystanders and cars,” Abdinur Abdulle, a waiter at a nearby restaurant, said on Saturday. “It’s a disaster.” Witnesses said the attack was made even worse by the number of cars stuck on the road where one of the bombs exploded.
The United States Mission to Somalia condemned the bombings, calling them “cowardly attacks” that “reinvigorate the commitment of the United States to assist our Somali and African Union partners to combat the scourge of terrorism.” “There was a traffic jam, and the road was packed with bystanders and cars,” Abdinur Abdulle, a waiter at a nearby restaurant, said. “It’s a disaster.”
The Qatar Embassy was severely damaged in the explosion, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, adding that the chargé d’affaires had been slightly injured. Hopes for Somalia tend to ebb and flow after more than 25 years of chaos since its central government collapsed. In recent years, there has been a bit more optimism with a new government in power. Still, in the fragile world of Somali politics, the threat of the Shabab never went away. Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in attacks on the capital this year alone.
The British ambassador to Somalia, David Concar, said on Twitter that the blast had been clearly audible from inside the British Embassy. Analysts thought the latest attack might have been in retaliation both for the loss of territory and for increasing American drone attacks since Mr. Trump loosened restrictions meant to strictly limit civilian casualties.
He also wrote: “Such cruel, cowardly acts. My condolences to the families and friends of the killed and injured, and to all Somalis. A time for unity and resolve.” United States Special Operations forces have launched 15 airstrikes against Shabab leaders, fighters, and training camps since the beginning of the year, including five strikes last month, according to The Long War Journal, which tracks American strikes against militants in Africa.
Erdogan Hospital, one of six hospitals that received wounded victims, said at least 127 people had been brought there for treatment. Senator Abshir Ahmed, the deputy speaker of the upper house of the Federal Parliament, wrote on his Facebook page that he had been told by Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Madina Hospital, that 218 bodies had been taken there. One of the strikes, on July 30, killed Ali Jabal, a Shabab commander who led forces and conducted attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia. After he was killed, the Pentagon’s Africa Command said his removal from the battlefield would significantly degrade the Shabab’s ability to coordinate attacks in the capital and in southern Somalia.
At least 130 had been burned beyond recognition, Mr. Ahmed wrote. Counterterrorism specialists said the size of the bombings Saturday, which were well beyond what the Shabab has conducted before, suggested that the group might have received help from operatives with the Qaeda arm in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is renowned for its prowess with explosives.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre appointed a 16-member committee, including ministers, civil society leaders and religious leaders, to arrange national funerals for the victims and to provide assistance to the wounded, according to his office. Africa specialists said the attack could backfire on the Shabab — and that may be one reason the group has not claimed responsibility, at least so far.
“When the group feels under pressure, it lashes out with more significant attacks,” said Tricia Bacon, a Somali specialist at American University in Washington and a former State Department counterterrorism analyst. She called the attack “a bad miscalculation” by the Shabab that will likely shore up public resolve for the government’s commitment to fighting the militants.
Some analysts also suggest that the Shabab may have been trying to take advantage of Somalia’s most recent political instability; the federal and regional governments have disagreed over which side to support in a political standoff between Qatar and a group of countries led by Saudi Arabia. One of those countries, the United Arab Emirates, supplied weapons to some of the regional governments in 2015. The federal government has remained neutral in the dispute.
American officials condemned the Mogadishu bombings, calling them “cowardly attacks” that “reinvigorate the commitment of the United States to assist our Somali and African Union partners to combat the scourge of terrorism.”
Previous attacks on the capital this year have killed or wounded at least 771 people, according to data compiled by the Long War Journal. The operations included remotely detonated vehicles, suicide car bombings and suicide assaults. At least 11 of these attacks have been assassination attempts against Somali military, intelligence, and government personnel, as well as Somali journalists.
The blast occurred two days after the head of the United States Africa Command was in Mogadishu to meet with Somalia’s president, and after the country’s defense minister and army chief resigned for undisclosed reasons.The blast occurred two days after the head of the United States Africa Command was in Mogadishu to meet with Somalia’s president, and after the country’s defense minister and army chief resigned for undisclosed reasons.
The American military has stepped up drone strikes this year against the Shabab, a group aligned with Al Qaeda that has recently stepped up attacks on army bases across the southern and central parts of the country. About 200 to 300 members of American Special Operations forces work with soldiers from Somalia and other African nations like Kenya and Uganda to carry out more than a half-dozen raids per month, according to senior American military officials. The operations are a combination of ground raids and drone strikes.
The Navy’s SEAL team 6 has been heavily involved in many of these operations.
A member of the United States Navy SEALs was killed and two troops were wounded in May during a raid on one of the Shabab’s compounds. It appeared to be the first American combat death in Somalia since the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” incident.