Double restaurant bombs kill 15 in the Somali capital

Terrorist bombers killed at least 15 in an attack on a packed restaurant in the Somali capital.

A car bomb went off at the entrance to the Village Restaurant in Mogadishu, and as people took the wounded inside, a suicide bomber self-detonated in the middle of the room. The busy restaurant was in the center of town near Somalia‘s parliament and its newly reopened national theatre.

A Reuters witness described mangled tables, chairs, blood and pieces of human flesh.

“First a car bomb exploded at the entrance to the restaurant, and when people converged inside, a suicide bomber blew himself up,” said Mohamed Yusuf, spokesman for the Mogadishu authorities.

Terrorists from the Al-Shabaab group have claimed responsibility for the attack which they say was aimed at the government ministers who often ate there. Al Shabaab is a Al-Qaeda affiliated group at war with government forces in the north of Somalia.

“We are behind today’s blasts,” al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters. “Government officials, military forces, workers and their security always meet here. We had targeted it even before today and we shall continue targeting it.”

“We are behind today’s blasts. Government officials, military forces, workers and their security always meet here. We had targeted it even before today and we shall continue targeting it.” Al-Shabaab spokesman

The restaurant was also targeted last year. It is owned by businessman Ahmed Jama who returned from London to set up the restaurant, against the advice of his friends.

The United Nations, the African Union Mission and Somalia’s president all condemned the attack.

“We strongly condemn the deliberate brutal blasts and we should collectively fight the terrorists,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told a conference in Mogadishu.

“The second blast killed many civilian teenagers who wanted to help the casualties from the first blast.”

Mr Mohamud’s elected government has been in charge for about a year and is striving to rebuild Somalia after two decades of civil war.