Mogadishu truck bomb: 500 casualties in Somalia's worst terrorist attack

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Mogadishu truck bomb: 500 casualties in Somalia’s worst terrorist attack

At least 239 people killed and hundreds seriously injured in attack blamed on militant group al-Shabaab

Jason Burke Africa correspondent
Sunday 15 October 2017 19.21 BST

At least 500 people are believed to have been killed or seriously injured in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in one of the most lethal terrorist acts anywhere in the world for many years.

The death toll from Saturday’s attack, which involved a truck packed with several hundred kilograms of military-grade and homemade explosives, stood at 239 on Sunday but is expected to rise as more bodies are dug from the rubble spread over an area hundreds of metres wide in the centre of the city. At least 300 people were injured, according to local reports.

Rescue workers on the ground said it would be difficult to establish a definitive death toll because the intense heat generated by the blast meant the remains of many people would never be found.

The devastating bombing will focus attention on the decade-long battle against al-Shabaab, an Islamist group, in Somalia. It provoked a chorus of international condemnation. Michael Keating, the UN special envoy to Somalia, called it “revolting”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/15/truck-bomb-mogadishu-kills-people-somalia

[applegrove]

1. Vibes to the victims and their families.