The toll from twin bomb explosions, which ripped through Somalian Capital Mogadishu on Saturday, has risen to more than 300.
The director of Aamin Ambulance Service, Abdikadir Abdirahman, said his service had confirmed 300 people died in the blast, The Guardian reported. The figure is expected to rise. “Some people who searched for their relatives just found unrecognisable body parts,” Abdirahman told Reuters.
The police said a truck bomb had exploded outside a hotel at the busy K5 intersection where several government offices, restaurants and kiosks are located. The blast destroyed buildings and set dozens of vehicles on fire. The second explosion shook Mogadishu’s Medina district two hours later.
Although no terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, the government of Somalia believes that the al-Shabab extremist group, which has links with the al-Qaeda, is behind the “national disaster”.
The blasts are being described as the deadliest attacks in Somalia since an Islamist insurgency began in the country in 2007. “Today’s horrific attack proves our enemy would stop nothing to cause our people pain and suffering,” President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo said on Twitter. “Let’s unite against terror.”
Kenya and Turkey have offered to provide medical help. The president declared three days of mourning from Sunday, and urged people to donate blood to the victims.
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