Al-Shabaab militant group claims responsibility for Mogadishu attack

SANAA, Dec. 31 (YPA) – Al-Shabaab militant group on Monday claimed responsibility for Saturday’s Mogadishu bombing that killed 90 people, while Somalia said an unnamed foreign country helped plan the bombing.

In an audio message, al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the bombing at a crowded checkpoint in northwest Mogadishu.

“The bombing targeted a convoy of Turkish and Somali troops, which have suffered heavy losses,” said Ali Mohamud Raji, a spokesman for the group, accusing Turkey of “taking all Somalia’s resources” and vowing to continue targeting its members in the country.

Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Service did not name the country it said was involved in the attack, saying in a Tweet that “a foreign country planned a massacre of Somalis in Mogadishu on December 28th, 2019.”

The agency added that it would use an unnamed foreign intelligence agency to investigate.

Two Turks were among those killed in the bombing. A small team of Turkish engineers was working on a road in the city when the explosion occurred.

In recent years, Somalia has become the scene of military and diplomatic rivalry between Turkey and Qatar, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the other.

Al-Shabaab usually launches such attacks in an attempt to undermine the UN-backed government and African Union forces.

The worst attack took place in October 2017 when a truck bomb exploded next to a fuel tank in Mogadishu, killing about 600 people.

E.M