Death Toll In Somalia Bombing Climbs To 81
By AFP
The death toll from a massive car bomb in the Somali capital has risen to 81, a government spokesman said Monday, as rescue workers pursued their search for the missing.
The bombing Saturday at a busy intersection in Mogadishu was the country’s deadliest attack in two years.
No one has claimed responsibility, though President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed blamed Islamist group Al-Shabaab, which has regularly carried out car bombings and other attacks as part of its decade-long bid to topple the internationally-backed government.
“The overall number of the dead stands at 81 currently. Two more people died from their injuries,” Ismail Muktar, a spokesman for Somalia’s information ministry, told AFP Monday.
One of the new fatalities was among the injured who had been evacuated to Turkey via a Turkish military plane on Sunday, Muktar said.
Muktar said the death toll could climb further as rescue operations entered the third day.
Around two dozen people were listed as missing after the attack, but 12 have been located — five of them dead — and the rest remain unaccounted for, he said.
Some 125 people were injured in Saturday’s blast, a caseload that has overwhelmed health facilities in Mogadishu.
