More than 20 people were killed today in a suicide truck bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said, in a fresh strike claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group. “The tally we have made so far indicates that more than 20 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the blast,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, a Somali police commander.
He said the toll might rise further as the injured and dead had been taken to different hospitals around the city. It was unclear how many people had been in the vicinity of the blast. Abdikadir Abdirahman Adem, director of Mogadishu’s AMIN ambulance service, said his staff had transported 48 injured people to hospital.
“The bomber targeted a civilian area. There were porters and other small-scale traders in the area when the blast occurred,” said Mohamed. Mogadishu residents described hearing a huge blast outside the city’s busy seaport, seeing a plume of smoke that rose above the skyline.
