Tuesday, December 31, 2019

At least 79 dead in massive Somalia car bombing

by Zachary Halaschak

| December 28, 2019 09:38 AM

Current Time 0:28

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Explosion at Kansas aircraft plant injures 15

At least 79 people were killed and 149 wounded after a car bomb detonated during rush hour in Somalia’s capital.

The bombing occurred at a busy intersection on the outskirts of Mogadishu at around 8 a.m. on Saturday, according to CNN. Government spokesman Ismael Mukhtar said that the perpetrator drove the explosive-laden vehicle into a checkpoint.

A victim of the attack is carried on a stretcher — A civilian who was wounded in suicide car bomb attack is helped to be taken to hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019. A car bomb exploded at a busy security checkpoint in Somalia's capital Saturday morning, a government spokesman said.

Mukhtar said that university students are among those who were killed in the attack, for which al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab has already claimed credit. Al Shabaab is an Islamist terrorist group that wants to turn Somalia, an already war-torn and failed nation, into a fundamentalist state.

The death toll is feared to rise as some of the more than 149 wounded people could succumb to their injuries. Photos from Mogadishu show the destruction from Saturday’s attack, including destroyed buildings, mangled cars, and bloodied Somalis being carried from the chaos.