More than 70 killed in Mogadishu car bomb carnage

The United States and United Nations have condemned a car-bomb attack on a government compound in Mogadishu which killed over 70 people in the deadliest attack by Somalia's Shebab rebels.

Witnesses described the carnage from Tuesday's attack as the worst they had seen in Mogadishu since Somalia plunged into chaos two decades ago and said the devastation resembled scenes from World War II.

The suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the compound housing four ministries at a strategic crossroads, two months after the Al Qaeda-linked rebels dismantled all their positions in the capital.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed condemned the attack which he said claimed "more than 70 people and (left) 150 injured; most of them were young students."
"I am extremely shocked and saddened by this cruel and inhumane act of violence against the most vulnerable in our society," he said in a statement.

"At this time, when the country is in the midst of a worsening humanitarian crisis, the enemy could not have attacked the Somali people at a worst time," the president added.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said around 90 people had been hospitalised at Mogadishu's Medina hospital.

UN-backed interim government

Earlier, Somalia's al Shabaab militant group has said it carried out the attack.

"We have carried 65 dead bodies and 50 injured people," emergency services co-ordinator Ali Muse said. "Some are still lying there. Most of the people have burns."

Many of the victims were reported to be civilians waiting for the education ministry to release the results of scholarships offered by Turkey.

"This is the worst tragedy since civil war began in 1991."
Al Shabaab, a listed terrorist group which is said to have links to al Qaeda, is fighting to topple Somalia's UN-backed interim government.

"One of our Mujahideen (fighters) made the sacrifice to kill TFG (Transitional Federal Government) officials, the African Union troops and other informers who were in the compound," an unnamed al Shabaab official has been reported as saying.

12-month political road map

The group, which controls much of southern and central Somalia, surprised observers by dismantling its checkpoints and pulling most of its fighters out of Mogadishu in August.

However, it has pledged to continue to target government troops and the African Union force (AMISOM), predominantly made up of soldiers from Burundi and Uganda, that supports them.

Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for AMISOM in Somalia, said students and government soldiers were among the dead.

The attack came as the government embarked on a 12-month political road map which is supposed to lead to elections for a new parliament and president by August 20 next year.

AFP/Iheanacho (with agency reports)