Car bomb attack kills many in Mogadishu

A car bomb exploded in front of a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia. Many were killed. The European Championship final was currently being broadcast in the restaurant. It is not known who is responsible for this attack.

A car bomb attack in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu kills several. The bomb detonated in front of a cafe in the city center where the final of the European Football Championship was being broadcast.

There are still varying reports of the death toll resulting from the alleged attack. AFP news agency reported at least nine deaths, while dpa news agency said at least eleven were killed.

Several guests at the hotel were also injured. Among those killed were five people who were in a car passing the cafe when the bomb exploded. A police spokesperson told dpa that the death toll could rise as the blast also caused some heavy damage to surrounding buildings.

“There were a lot of people in the restaurant, most of them young, watching the soccer match,” an employee of Somalia’s national security agency said, AFP reported. “Luckily most of them used ladders to climb the back boundary wall and jumped out safely.”

Al-Shabaab terrorists behind the attack?

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The cafe is not far from the presidential palace, and according to dpa, the restaurant was also popular with government employees.

Sonna, a national news agency, has drawn parallels to past attacks by radical Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab. Militants affiliated with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda have been fighting the Somali government since 2007 with the support of the international community. Al-Shabaab fighters were driven out of the capital Mogadishu and other major cities ten years ago. However, they continue to control large swaths of the East African country and carry out repeated attacks, including in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab rejects football, but also music as “haram” and therefore impure. A few months ago, militants tried to attack a football stadium in Mogadishu while a game was being played. During the 2010 World Cup, al-Shabaab detonated bombs in a bar in Kampala, Uganda where several hundred people were watching the World Cup final. 74 people died then.