Accessibility links

Breaking News

Al-Shabab Claims Responsibility for Somali Plane Bomb


A gaping hole is visible in the side of a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 2, 2016.
A gaping hole is visible in the side of a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 2, 2016.

Somali militant group Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the bomb blast aimed at bringing down a Somali airliner earlier this month.

The group said in a statement Saturday that it carried out the attack as “retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against Muslims of Somalia.”

Al-Shabab said the explosion targeted Western and Turkish intelligence officials aboard Daallo Airlines Flight A321 to Djibouti on February 2.

The mid-air blast blew a meter-wide hole in the aircraft, carrying 74 passengers, and forced the pilot to make an emergency landing 15 minutes after take-off from Mogadishu airport.

The suspected suicide bomber, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, was a passenger and was blown out of the plane.

Security video footage taken at Mogadishu airport showed two men handing what looked like a laptop computer to Borleh after he passed through a security checkpoint.

Authorities believe the laptop-like device was the bomb that caused the explosion.

At least 15 people have been arrested in connection to the attack.

VOA's Somali Service contributed to this report.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG