Twin car-bomb explosion leaves at least 30 dead in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu

Two car bombs exploded at a busy intersection in Somalia’s capital near key government buildings, killing “dozens of civilians, including children,” the national police said.

A hospital worker counted at least 30 bodies for fear of possibly many more.

The attack in Mogadishu came on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials met to discuss extensive efforts to counter violent extremism, notably by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab group that often targets the capital city.

It also came five years after another massive explosion in the exact same location killed more than 500 people.

A hospital worker said they have seen at least 30 dead bodies, although there is no exact death toll yet

Security officials claim al-Shabab is responsible, but the terror organization rarely admits its role in attacks that claim the lives of large numbers of civilians

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al-Shabab rarely claims attacks that killed large numbers of civilians, such as the 2017 explosion.

But President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud accused al-Shabab by name, calling the attack “cruel and cowardly.”

A volunteer from the Medina Hospital, Hassan Osman, said: ‘Of the total of 30 deaths taken to the hospital, most are women. I’ve seen this with my own eyes.”

At the hospital and elsewhere, frantic relatives peeped under plastic sheeting and body bags in search of loved ones.

Aamin’s ambulance service said they had gathered at least 35 injured people. An ambulance responding to the first attack was destroyed by the second explosion, director Abdulkadir Adan added in a tweet.

“I was 100 meters away when the second blast happened,” witness Abdirazak Hassan said.

“I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground because of the (number of) fatalities.”

He said the first explosion hit the wall of the Ministry of Education, which was home to street vendors and money changers.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene said the second blast happened in front of a busy restaurant during lunchtime. The blast destroyed tuk-tuks and other vehicles in an area with many restaurants and hotels.

He saw “many” bodies and said they appeared to be civilians traveling on public transport.

Ambulances rushed to the crime scene to collect the injured, while many bodies were found in the street

Somalia’s government is engaged in a high-profile new offensive against the extremist group the United States has described as one of Al-Qaeda’s deadliest organizations.

The Somali Journalists Syndicate, citing colleagues and police, said a journalist was killed and two others injured by the second blast as he rushed to the site of the first.

The attack took place at the Zobe interchange, where a massive bombing of an Al-Shabab truck in 2017 killed more than 500 people.

Somalia’s government is engaged in a high-profile new offensive against the extremist group described by the United States as one of Al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations.

The president described it as an “all-out war” against the extremists, who control large parts of central and southern Somalia and have been the target of dozens of US airstrikes in recent years.

The extremists have responded by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent attempt to discourage support for that government offensive.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said the attack would not dampen public uprising against al-Shabab, and he and the president expressed the government’s determination to stamp out the extremist group.