Al Shabaab's deadly Mogadishu bombing, sign of desperation: analysts

Al Shabaab's deadly Mogadishu bombing, sign of desperation: analysts

The huge truck bomb that left almost 76 people dead and nearly 150 others wounded, most of them students and civilians, that was claimed by the Islamist radicals of Al Shabaab show the level of desperation by the group following their loss of Mogadishu, said analysts.

The militant group which have been fighting four years of insurgency were forced from the Somali capital in August following sustained offensive by the Somali government and African Union peacekeepers backing it.

''The group which has lost its aura of indefeatibility after they fled from their bases in Mogadishu after they could not resist the onslaught of Somali government and AU forces in the city needed to show they are still a force to be reckoned with but that is clearly an act of desperation,'' said Mohamoud Haji, an analyst in Mogadishu.

The Al Shabaab which has links to the global terrorist network of Al Qaida has been facing continuous streak of losses in areas it controls in the south of the country which is ceded to the Somali government forces.

The deadly famine and drought gripping the southern part of the war-torn country is attributed to draconian measures put in place by the group on local farmers and business and after they banned humanitarian agencies from operating in areas under their control.

Mohamed Aalim, a political scientist in Mogadishu, said the group by carrying out such devastating attack on key government locations wanted to send the message that despite their humiliating flight from the capital the city remains ''ungovernable.''

''The massage here is clear. They want to say 'we left but you cannot run the capital without us. We make life difficult for you, we make Mogadishu ungovernable until we return,' but that will not go down well with people tired of non-ending violence,'' Aalim told Xinhua in Mogadishu.

The death toll from the truck bomb attack in Mogadishu has kept rising as the people gruesomely injured in the huge blast succumbed to their injuries at hospitals which have been inundated by the influx of victims.

Medical officials said that the number of the dead is now 76 while nearly 150 others remain in hospitals and they are running out of essential medical supplies.

Most of the casualties were civilians mainly students who at the government's ministry of education expecting to get scholarship in Turkey. The latter has recently donated hundreds of scholarships to Somali students to study in Turkish schools and universities.

The Al Shabaab group said their attack targeted recruits for the Somali intelligence service that are supposed to be taken for training outside the country, a claim denied by parents of the students perished in the attack.

The attack on Somali students has reminded people in the capital of a similar attack in 2009 that targeted medical university graduates at a graduation ceremony in a hotel in Mogadishu which left dozens of young doctors and university professors dead. The Al Shabaab group then distanced themselves from the attack after widespread public anger.

''This time it is different from the hotel bombing which they did not claim because it was too bad to claim such an attack, but this time because they have nothing more to lose they have taken responsibility for the attack despite similarity with the previous attack,'' the political scientist said.

Analysts noted the group intends to shatter the confidence of the people in the Somali capital who have been returning to their homes in Mogadishu in droves following the militants retreat from the city.

Roads and houses have been repaired by local authorities and returnees while businesses have begun reopening in markets and street in areas previously deserted by civilians as fighting raged between the two sides.

''This attack was more of a psychological attack than a military one because with this attack the group wanted to destroy people's hopes of having a peaceful and prosperous life in Mogadishu and of creating fear and hopelessness in them and that is one of the biggest tools of terrorist groups of the likes of Al Shabaab,'' Mohamoud Haji, an analyst in Mogadishu, contends.

Editor: Fang Yang

English.news.cn   2011-10-05 14:40:33 FeedbackPrintRSS
MOGADISHU, Oct. 5 (Xinhua)