Rebels kill scores in Somali capital blast

MOGADISHU, (Reuters) – Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked  rebels struck at the heart of the capital Mogadishu today,  killing at least 65 people with a truck bomb in the group’s most  deadly single attack since launching an insurgency in 2007.
Witnesses said a truck exploded at the gate of a compound  housing four government ministries in the K4 (Kilometre 4) area  of Mogadishu, where students had gathered to sit exams.
“We have carried 65 dead bodies and 50 injured people,”  ambulance coordinator Ali Muse told Reuters. “Some are still  lying there. Most of the people have burns.”
Al Shabaab insurgents, who claimed responsibility for  Tuesday’s bombing, pulled most of their fighters out of  Mogadishu in August allowing government troops and African Union  soldiers to seize much of the coastal capital, but the rebels  had vowed to attack government installations.
Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the African Union force  (AMISOM) in Somalia, said students and government soldiers were  among the dead.
A Reuters reporter said he had seen nine bodies at the  compound, which is in an area of the capital under the control  of government forces and African Union troops from the east  African countries of Uganda and Burundi.
The blast destroyed kiosks near the compound and burned the  facades of government buildings. Debris from the explosion  landed hundreds of metres away.
Scores of people with burns were seen walking to a nearby  hospital and police were trying to evacuate more students  trapped inside the damaged buildings.
Muse said it looked as though the truck had been packed with  petrol and explosives. He said students, soldiers and civilians  were among the dead.
“Al Shabaab carried out that attack,” a spokesman for the  insurgents told Reuters. “Our target was the ministries.”
FRAGILE SITUATION
When al Shabaab fighters pulled out of Mogadishu in August,  analysts warned the conflict was far from won and a shift in the  insurgents’ tactics could herald a wave of al Qaeda-style  suicide attacks.
“Since the withdrawal of Shabaab from Mogadishu we have been  increasingly concerned with a shift towards more asymmetric  attacks and terrorist-style actions,” said a U.N. official.
“We’ve been warning for a long time the situation there is  still fragile, the security sector hasn’t been stood up that is  capable of defending against attacks, AMISOM is stretched and in  desperate need of additional resources,” he said.
Al Shabaab has used suicide bombers to devastating effect in  past attacks on African Union compounds, government buildings  and a medical graduation ceremony.
A suicide bomber killed three government ministers in the  December 2009 attack on the graduation ceremony in Mogadishu and  a fourth minister died from his wounds two months later. A  female suicide bomber killed the interior minister in June.
Al Shabaab is fighting to oust the U.N.-backed transition  government that it sees as a puppet of the West and wants to  impose its own harsh version of sharia law throughout the Horn  of Africa nation.
The militants still hold sway over large chunks of southern  and central Somalia, which is also in the grip of a famine. Al  Shabaab had appeared to be on the back foot and there were  reports of internal rifts and funding problems.
However, al Shabaab has renewed its attacks on government  troops and allied militia near the Kenyan border in the past few  weeks and the Kenyan government has also blamed the militants  for the kidnapping of two Western tourists from its beach  resorts.
The attack also comes at a time the government has just  embarked on a 12-month political road map which is supposed to  lead to elections for a new parliament and president by Aug. 20  next year.