Friday, December 20, 2013
Ethiopian
police have arrested five more people suspected of plotting suicide
bombings during Ethiopia's World Cup qualifying match against Nigeria in
October, security officials said on Thursday. The planned attack failed when two Somali accidentally blew themselves up a few kilometres (miles) from Addis Ababa Stadium where soccer fans were gathering.
The men who plotted the attack were all Somali nationals belonging to the militant Islamist group al Shabaab, 's and (NISS) and Federal Police said in a joint statement, read out on state television.
"The
plan was to hurl bombs at crowds gathered around the stadium and two
malls, then enter the stadium and carry out a suicide attack," one of
the said on Ethiopian Television.
The two men who died in October had returned to their
in the Bole district of the Ethiopian capital because of heavy
security, wearing the explosive vests which they had planned to detonate
once inside the stadium, the suspect said.
They
set off the explosives accidentally, government officials said. Three
suspects were detained at the scene, where security forces found hand
grenades and .
Thursday's statement did not disclose when or where the five suspects were arrested.
Ethiopia has sent troops to Somalia to help other African countries battling to crush al Shabaab's six-year insurgency.
The
government in Addis Ababa announced last month that its security forces
were on heightened alert after receiving strong evidence that al
Shabaab was plotting attacks on its territory.
Security around government institutions, hotels, embassies and offices of humanitarian agencies has been beefed up.
Ethiopia
says it has thwarted attacks over the past two years which it has
blamed on domestic rebel groups as well as the Somali insurgents.
However,
it has so far been spared the sorts of attacks carried out in nearby
countries - such as the siege at a Kenyan mall in September in which at
least 67 people were killed, and an attack on football fans in Uganda in
2010.
(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by George Obulutsa and Rosalind Russell)