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Monday, July 12, 2010
19:09 Mecca time, 16:09 GMT
Al-Shabab claims Uganda bombings
At least 74 people have been killed in two near simultaneous bomb explosions,
apparently targeting crowds watching the World Cup final, in Uganda's capital,
Kampala, police have said.
One blast hit an Ethiopian restaurant in the south of the city, while the other
occurred at a rugby sports club in the east of Kampala.
Somalia's al-Shabab, a group which the US says has links to al-Qaeda, has
claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"Al-Shabab was behind the two blast in Uganda," Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, the
group's spokesperson, told reporters in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
"We thank the mujahideens that carried out the attack. We are sending a message
to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not take out their AMISOM [African Union
Mission in Somalia] troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it will
happen," Rage said.
Uganda and Burundi currently have peacekeepers in Somalia as part of a
stabilisation mission supported by the African Union.
These attacks are the first time the group, which has carried out multiple
suicide attacks inside Somalia, has struck outside of the country.
Al-Shabab strategy
Both blasts struck at the centre of large crowds watching live coverage of
Sunday's World Cup football final between Spain and the Netherlands.
"These bombs were definitely targeting World Cup crowds," Kale Kayihura, the
inspector-general of Ugandan police, said.
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Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Kampala, said the attacks may be
part of al-Shabab's larger strategy to force international troops out of
Somalia.
"Uganda was the first country to send peacekeepers to Somalia ... there are
moves to get more peacekeepers into Somalia from neighbouring states.
[Al-Shabab's] strategy is to undermine getting troops into Somalia through
attacks like this," our correspondent said.
Judith Nabakooba, Uganda's national police spokesperson, said on Monday the
nationalities of all the fatalities will be released later.
The US embassy confirmed that one US citizen was among the dead and a number of
other foreigners were reported to be among the injured.
Hussein Mohammed Noor, a Somalia analyst, said the Ethiopian restaurant was
targeted because "Ethiopia's involvement in Somalia is well known, there are so
many incursions inside".
Noor told Al Jazeera that these attacks are unlikely to make African countries
reconsider sending troops to Somalia.
Hospital overwhelmed
The attacks left scores of football fans reeling in shock.
"We were watching soccer here and then when there were three minutes to the end
of the match an explosion came ... and it was so loud," Juma Seiko, who was at
the Kampala Rugby Club, said.
Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from Kampala, said dozens of injured had
been taken to local hospitals, which had been overwhelmed by the number of
casualties.
"All the beds are full, staff are rushed off their feet, they're really
struggling to cope," he said.
Speaking by phone to Al Jazeera, Kayihura said all the signs indicated that the
bombings were a "deliberate terrorist attack by a terrorist organisation".
"This was a terrorist attack," he said. "It was a deliberate, calculated attack
to inflict maximum damage."
Felix Kulaije, a Ugandan army spokesman, told the Reuters news agency that
investigators had found the severed head of a Somali national at the scene of
one of the attacks.
Reprisals feared
Hassan Isilow, a Somali analyst living in Kampala, said that Somalis in Uganda
feared reprisals after the claims that al-Shabab launched the attacks.
"There is fear within the Somali community at the moment," he said. "People are
in panic."
"[Somalis] own lots of businesses around the city and most of them are not
working today."
The blasts had "all the hallmarks" of al-Shabab
The force has been deployed to prop up Somalia's UN-backed government which
only controls a few square kilometres of the country.
Ramtane Lamamra, the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, condemned the
attack "in the strongest posible terms".
"The attacks prove that terrorists can hit anywhere, including Africa," he said.
Lamamra said that the body's annual meeting of heads of state would go ahead in
Kampala next week.
In Washington, Barack Obama, the US president, condemned the bombings.
A spokesman quoted him as saying the attacks were "deplorable and cowardly".
Mike Hammer, spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement
that the US was "ready to provide any assistance requested by the Ugandan
government".
US officials added that they were in contact with the US embassy in Kampala and
in touch with the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding requests for
assistance from Uganda's government.
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