MOGADISHU // More than 20 people were killed on Sunday in a suicide truck bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu
Al Shabab, the extremist group linked to Al Qaeda, admitted carrying out the attack.
Ibrahim Mohamed, a Somali police commander, said most of the victims were civilians. He said the toll might rise further as the injured and dead had been taken to different hospitals around the city.
“The bomber targeted a civilian area. There were porters and other small-scale traders in the area when the blast occurred,” said Mohamed.
Abdikadir Abdirahman Adem, director of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, said his staff had transported 48 injured people to hospital.
Mogadishu residents described hearing a huge blast outside the city’s busy port and seeing a plume of smoke that rose above the skyline.
A spokesman for the city administration, Abdifatah Omar Halane, said investigations were under way.
Al Shabab is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government of Somalia and regularly stages deadly attacks on government, military and civilian targets in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Sunday’s attack took place close to the entrance to city port and was large even by Mogadishu’s standards.
“I have never witnessed such a blast which caused so much devastation,” said local resident Abdukarim Osman.
The attack comes as Somalia is in the process of electing a new government with the much-delayed presidential vote due on December 28.
*Agence France-Presse
