Telesurtv
Thursday October 19, 2017
Following the recent truck bombing, the deadliest terror attack in Somalia's history, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed pledged tough actions against al-Shabab.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed vowed to ramp up the fight against al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda linked terrorist organization that has been operating in Somalia since 2006, following the deadly truck bombing in Mogadishu that killed over 300 people, the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
Though the group has not claimed the attack as their own, officials have suggested that the attack is linked to the terror group.
"If we don't respond to this now, the time will surely come when pieces of flesh from all of us are being picked up off the ground. We need to stand up together and fight al-Shabab, who continue massacring our people," the president said to a group of protesters that took to the streets following the deadly terror attack.
Mohamed continued that the attack "shows that we have not done enough to stop Shabab."
Al-Shabab, who formerly controlled the Somali capital of Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011, before they were driven out by government and African Union (AU) forces, has ramped up attacks in attempt to drive out foreign fighters.
Details on the bombing continue to develop as officials have said that they believe the original target of the truck bombing was a newly-established Turkish military base scheduled to train over 10,000 soldiers set to fight against al-Shabab.
According to this account, the truck bomb accidentally detonated at a government checkpoint when the driver of the vehicle panicked.The Guardian reports that the driver of the truck was a former Somali soldier whose town was raided by a United States special forces mission that resulted in the death of 10 civilians, which suggests that the truck bombing may have been an act of revenge.
"This attack seems to have united the people because everyone is angry now and needs to fight violence, there are thousands of young men, women and children out there protesting," said a protester to Press TV.