MOGADISHU: Two suicide bombers walked into a restaurant in central Mogadishu and killed at least 15 people on Thursday, police said, highlighting the security challenges facing the country’s new president.
Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents said Thursday that supporters of the extremist group had carried out the bombing.
"Action has been taken by sympathisers of the Shebab, who were angry with the situation in Somalia," militant spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told AFP. But the group had not directly ordered the attacks, he added.
The Al-Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings last week outside a hotel where President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was holding a news conference just two days into the job, an an attack interpreted as a warning from the insurgents that they are far from defeated.
Police spokesman General Abdullahi Barise told Reuters 15 people were killed in Thursday’s attack. A Reuters photographer saw several bodies, the severed heads of the two bombers and pools of blood on the floor.
The blasts targeted The Village restaurant, owned by well-known Somali businessman Ahmed Jama, who had returned to his home country from London to set up business against the advice of friends.
“My relatives, whom I created jobs for, have perished. My customers have perished. All innocent people. I cannot count them, their dead bodies are before me,” a distraught Jama told Reuters.
Three local journalists were among the dead, including the director of the state-run Somali National Television, the National Union of Somali Journalists said.
Suicide bombers kill 15 in Somali capital
Suicide bombers kill 15 in Somali capital
Indonesia rescuers find body from plane crash
- Indonesian Air Transport turboprop plane lost contact with the air traffic controller on Saturday afternoon
- The body of one victim was found on a steep mountain slope in the same area
MAKASSAR, Indonesia: Rescuers found debris and one body on Sunday from a small plane that crashed in eastern Indonesia with 10 people on board, officials said.
The Indonesian Air Transport turboprop plane lost contact with the air traffic controller on Saturday afternoon while en route from Yogyakarta to the city of Makassar on Sulawesi island.
Among the debris, the joint search and rescue team found what is believed to be “the fuselage, the tail section, and the windows,” local official Muhammad Arif Anwar told a press briefing.
The body of one victim was found on a steep mountain slope in the same area, said Arif, head of the Makassar search and rescue agency.
“One male victim was found... at a depth of roughly 200 meters (656 feet) in the ravine and near aircraft debris,” he said.
Another local rescue official, Andi Sultan, confirmed a body had been recovered, saying the remains would be evacuated on Monday due to poor weather conditions.
A unit was also deployed by air to search for the missing passengers, according to Arif.
The plane crashed into Mount Bulusaraung in Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park, which borders the city of Makassar, Arif said.
Three government workers from the ministry of marine affairs and fisheries were on board the plane along with seven crew members.
Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said the employees were on a mission to conduct aerial monitoring of resources in the area.
The search on land and by air involved more than 1,000 people including members of the air force, police and volunteers.
Local military chief Bangun Nawoko told reporters that the search was hindered by harsh terrain and fog.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands. The country has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal crashes in recent years.
In September, a helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed shortly after taking off from South Kalimantan province, killing everybody on board.
Less than two weeks after the September crash, four people were killed when their helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga.
