Online Wall St. Journal, US
July 12, 2010
Peter Wonacott in Johannesburt and Nicholas Bariyo in Kampala
Three coordinated bombings killed an estimated 76 people in Uganda late Sunday and underscored the ambitions of a shadowy Somali militant group that is torn between toppling Somalia's government and hitting out at other African targets in the same way as its al Qaeda allies have sought to destabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The two violent objectives appear to have converged in Uganda. On a mild Sunday night, three separate blasts, targeting crowds that gathered to watch the final World Cup soccer match, dealt a blow to a Somali government ally, Uganda, which has contributed troops to a regional peacekeeping force in Somalia.
The attack also raised the regional profile of the group, al Shabaab, which analysts say hasn't previously struck outside Somalia.
Ronald Kabuubi/Reuters
People carried an injured man upon his arrival at Mulago Hospital, Monday.
"This is really an unpleasant confluence of goals between the nationalist and international wing of al Shabaab," said Roger Middleton, a Somalia analyst at London-based think tank Chatham House.
Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said Monday the group was responsible.
"We have carried out the holy blasts that massacred many Christians last night" he told reporters. He said the attacks would continue until African Union peacekeeper troops are pulled out of Somalia.
The blasts occurred at an Ethiopian restaurant, the rugby field, and a bar inside the rugby club.
The attack poses a challenge to a continent that has struggled to police and pacify its own hotspots. The U.S. pulled out of Somalia in 1994, after encountering fierce resistance that was depicted in the movie "Black Hawk Down." United Nations peacekeepers followed.
Africa's own peacekeepers have had their own struggles stabilizing the war-torn and clan-riven country. The Somali government controls only a section of the capital, with most of the rest of the country under the sway of al Shabaab, clans, other militants and pirates.
The Uganda attack could signal a tide turning against them as well, say analysts.
Three bombs hit Uganda's capital, killing at least 64 people, in an attack targeting crowds watching the World Cup final match. Peter Wonacott discusses. Also, Jacob Schlesinger reports from Japan about the fallout from Sunday's elections, in which the ruling DPJ party lost critical support.
"It's sending a message: Don't come here propping up the Somalia government," said Rashid Abdi, Horn of Africa analyst in Nairobi for the International Crisis Group. "It's a message of deterrence."
Uganda's deputy foreign affairs minister, Okello Oryema, said the attack wouldn't force his government to withdraw troops from Somalia. "It would be a cowardly act to withdraw and we won't do that," he said.
With the support of African peacekeepers, Somalia's government has gone on the offensive against militants in the capital of Mogadishu, although progress is hard to determine. President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who has been on the front lines of the offensive, has been trying to maintain support of neighboring countries to help buttress what remains a fragile government protected by a weak and poorly paid collection of security forces.
"Somalia mourns with the brotherly people of Uganda," he said. "Neither the region, nor the international community, will tolerate the spread of insecurity."
Uganda, buoyed by an emerging middle-class, newly discovered oil reserves and flows of foreign tourists, has carefully stepped into a broader regional role.
Reuters
Uganda is scheduled to host a summit of African Union leaders in Kampala this month, a meeting that—if it goes forward—will likely touch on ways to curb the threats coming from Somalia.
For these efforts, Uganda has also drawn ire from al Shabaab. For weeks, al Shabaab had threatened the Uganda government to force it to withdraw peacekeeping troops from Somalia. The militants renewed those threats last week, after East African nations, including Uganda, pledged to send 2,000 more troops to Somalia.
On Sunday, tourist-heavy crowds had gathered in front of televisions to watch the World Cup finals. Around 10:30 pm local time, explosions hit an Ethiopian restaurant, a rugby club and a packed pub, killing scores of locals and 11 foreigners, including one American.
"Most people who died were just in front of me. The blast was so loud—the next thing I saw were body parts flying over," says Ugandan musician Bebe Cool who was performing at the rugby club but escaped with minor injuries.
At least 70 people were injured, among them six members of a Pennsylvania church group who were at the Ethiopian restaurant. Dr. Ian Clarke, the director of International Hospital Kampala, said a number of the victims from the Ethiopian Restaurant sustained head injuries; some were in a critical condition.
European Pressphoto Agency
A man is treated by a doctor at Mulago Hospital in Kampala after dozens were killed in bombings in the city late Sunday.
Uganda security forces said they suspected al Shabaab suicide bombers carried out the attacks. At the Kyadondo Rugby Club, security personnel said they had identified a severed body of a suspected bomber.
A police spokeswoman said the Ugandan police requested assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and other foreign intelligence agencies. The police haven't yet made any arrests.
The U.S. State Department offered U.S. assistance on the investigation, spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We'll be helping them in coming days," he said.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, vowed to fight back. "We shall defeat them as we have done in the past," he said. "This is a cowardly act of terrorists. If they want to fight, why don't they go for the army?"
On Monday, al Shabaab leaders addressed mosques, describing "successful attacks" to avenge what they called "civilians' killings."
Al Shabaab and other militants want to overthrow the state and establish countrywide Islamic law. Punishments for transgressions can include amputations and beheadings. In the past month, militants have also thrown grenades at crowds watching World Cup matches in Somalia.
The lack of any central authority in Somalia has proven attractive to foreign militants fleeing hotspots such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
The foreign fighters are estimated to number in the hundreds, supplementing al Shabaab's force of a few thousand, say analysts.
Links between al Shabaab and al Qaeda are tightening, analysts say. Al Shabaab has pledged its allegiance to the global terror network and at least part of the group appears to have fused onto its larger ally. Top commanders have spent time in Afghanistan and Pakistan, says Mr. Abdi of the the International Crisis Group.
"What al Shabaab has become is a multinational terror network, like al Qaeda if not al Qaeda," he says.
The influx of foreign fighters has also shaped al Shabaab's ideology to project force well beyond Somalia's borders, according to Anneli Botha, a senior researcher on terrorism at the Institute for Security Studies, a think tank based in Pretoria.
"Al Qaeda never had just one country in mind," she says.
But how to achieve different goals of getting rid of the Somali government and hitting foreign targets has divided the group, say these analysts. A suicide attack last year on a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu backfired on the militants, prompting angry protests from the Somali population.
Factions within al Shabaab now want to stay focused on bringing down the government, a goal for which they'll need to retain some support among the population. But those aligned with al Qaeda, particularly the foreign fighters, don't share those priorities, says Ms. Botha.
"Foreigners come with a different mindset to the fight," she said. "Loss of life isn't as important.