Death toll from Somalia truck bombing rises

The toll from Saturday's suicide truck bombing in capital Mogadishu has climbed to more than 300 dead and more than 300 others injured, Minister of Information Abdirahman Omar Osman said late Sunday.

Death toll from Somalia truck bombing rises

''The death toll rises to more than 300 as of now and around 300 injured as a result of yesterday's barbaric attack by terrorists' group Al-Shabaab at KM5 junction in Mogadishu Somalia,'' Osman tweeted.

Following his visits to Medina Hospital and Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital -- a jointly run Turkish-Somali facility, parliamentarian Mahad Salad said 130 of the dead were unrecognizable.

''This is a national disaster," Salad said.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo announced three days of mourning Saturday.

On Sunday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the injured from the blast in Somalia would be brought to Turkey for medical treatment.

Ankara later sent air ambulances with medical supplies to take the critically injured to Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the attack.

In a message to President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, Erdogan said: “I condemn this attack targeting security and stability in Somalia in the strongest terms.”

He added that Turkey remains committed to standing by the government and people of Somalia against terrorism.

Last month, Turkey opened a military base to train soldiers in the Horn of Africa nation, its largest base outside Turkish soil.

The truck attack at the capital's busiest intersection destroyed buildings, restaurants, and hotels.

Farmaajo and Somali prime minister had urged the public to donate blood at hospitals.

“It was the deadliest explosion in Somali history,” Abdisalam Yusuf Guled, former deputy director of Somalia's Intelligence and Security Agency, told Anadolu Agency.

African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat condemned the attack.

Mahamat expressed the union’s “heartfelt condolences” to the families of the victims and wished speedy recovery to the injured. He also conveyed the bloc’s solidarity with the government and people of Somalia, at this particularly challenging situation.

Anadolu Agency

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