Terrorist attack in Somalia leaves 500 causalities: Is the US to blame?
By Alexis Alex
Somalian soldier and civilian help a citizen injured in the blast. Photo via CNN.
On Saturday, at least 276 people were killed in a double car bombing in the nation's capital, Mogadishu. Nearly all of the people died after the first bomb, which exploded outside of the Safari hotel near a busy intersection in Mogadishu, sending a plume of smoke into the sky that could be seen across the city. The second truck bomb killed several more people in the district nearby. At least 500 people have been killed or seriously injured. Workers on the ground are reporting it will be hard to establish an official death toll because the intense heat generated by the blast was so high that the remains of many people will never be found. Somalian President, Mohomaed Abdullahi Mohamed has declared three days of national mourning. The Somalian government has blamed the attack on al Shabaab, but the group has not claimed responsibility in tradition to previous attacks.
Since 2007, Somalia has been fighting al- Shabaab with the help of 22,000 troops from the African Union and the US. This year, Trump authorized the deployment of regular US forces to Somalia for the first time since 1994. The US pulled out of Somalia after 1993, but Trump's military plan is aggressive against terrorist groups which is why he has deployed troops in Somalia and has promised to "wipe out" al -Shabaab, which has caught the group's attention. As a result, al- Shabaab has vowed to escalate the degree of their attacks after the Trump administration announced increasing new military efforts to fight the group. Although the US and African Union operations have been able to force the group out of territories they once controlled, they have not been able to eliminate their accessibility to Mogadsihu, the nation's capital and hotspot. This is the deadliest attack Somalia has experienced since the al - Shabaab insurgency began in 2007, but will the group take responsibility of the attack? As US intervention increases, Somalian attacks may get worse. #prayforsomalia
Aftermath in Mogadishu. Photo via CNN.
