Mogadishu, Somalia - Al-Qaida-linked militants launched their deadliest single bomb attack ever in Somalia on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people and demonstrating how the group that blocked aid to famine victims can still mount devastating violence even after most of its fighters fled the capital in August.
© ReutersSomalia government soldiers carry an injured man from the scene of a suicide attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu October 4, 2011.
A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded outside the Ministry of Education, where students accompanied by their parents registered for scholarships offered by the Turkish government. The thunderous blast covered the city in dust more than a half-mile away, leaving blackened corpses sprawled on the debris-strewn street amid burning vehicles. One woman used a blue plastic bucket to pour water on a smoldering body.
Even in a city mired in war and anarchy for two decades, Tuesday's attack by the al-Shabab group horrified rescue workers. Ali Abdullahi, a nurse at the city's Medina Hospital, said countless victims were being brought in with amputated limbs and burns.
"It is the most awful tragedy I have ever seen," he said. "Imagine dozens are being brought here minute by minute. Most of the wounded people are unconscious and others have their faces blackened by smoke and heat."
Duniya Salad sobbed over her brother's burnt body after he died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
"They killed him before he started university! Why was he killed? Damn to al-Shabab," she said.
Comment: Evidence - Why is it always lacking? "Al-Shabab includes militant veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts who have trained Somalis.." Says Who! We're always stuck taking someones word. Why is there never a link to the so-called Militants website? How is it the web site exists if the CIA and other alphabet agencies are monitoring such things? There are always so many "just take our word for it" points but never any hard evidence. For example, how did those WMD's in Iraq turn out? There was loads of evidence, they said. All of these poor people caught in the cross-fire of one nations, groups, army's desire for control, greed.., how heart-wrenching!