An al-Shabaab suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a busy beach in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 32 people and wounding scores more, police said yesterday, in one of the deadliest strikes in the east African country in months.
The militants have been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed federal government for more than 17 years and have previously targeted the Lido beach area, popular with businesspeople and officials.
Unverified video footage shared online in the immediate aftermath of the attack late on Friday showed people scattering along a street, with a number of clips apparently showing bloodied bodies lying on the beachfront.
Photo: Reuters
“More than 32 civilians died in this attack and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically,” police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told a news conference.
“Targeting and blasting to kill 32 members from the civilian population means these Kharijites are not going to target only government centers, soldiers and officials,” he said, using a term Somalian officials use to describe al-Shabaab.
The assault, for which al-Shabaab claimed responsibility in a post on a pro-al-Shabaab Web site, began when a suicide bomber detonated a device and gunmen stormed the area.
Officer Mohamed Omar said that members of the group had “shot civilians randomly.”
Security forces had ended the attack and killed five gunmen, while a sixth member of the group “blew himself [up] at the beach,” he said.
Witnesses said there were many people at the popular location when the explosion occurred, describing how gunmen then stormed the area.
Hawo Mohamed, who lives near the scene, said at least seven people he knew had died in the attack.
“The devastation is immense and there is blood, and severed pieces of human flesh strewn in the scene,” he said.
Witness Abdilatif Ali was at the beach when the attackers struck and described the chaos and fear that unfolded late at night.
“Everybody was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening because shooting started soon after the blast,” he said. “I saw many people strewn [on the ground] and some of them were dead and others wounded.”
Ahmed Yare witnessed the attack unfold from a nearby hotel.
“I saw wounded people at the beachside. People were screaming in panic, and it was hard to notice who was dead and who was still alive,” he said.
Hospitals appealed for blood donations following the influx of wounded, local media reported.
Abdulkhaliq Osman, head of the health section at Kalkaal Hospital, told reporters that they had received scores of injured people.
“Eleven of them were transferred to the operations unit for critical injuries, and those with light injuries were sent home after receiving the necessary medical assistance,” he said.
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