NAIROBI, kenya — Militants set off two large explosions Saturday at a popular restaurant in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, killing at least 15 people and wounding about two dozen, according to Somali and U.N. officials.
The attack underscored the fragility of Somalia’s political environment, even as both the United States and the Somali government have sought to portray the Horn of Africa nation as having entered a more stable era after more than two decades of lawlessness.
The blasts, according to news reports, ripped off much of the roof of the Village restaurant — an eatery frequented by government employees, journalists and students, and about a half mile from the presidential palace and the National Theatre. Local media said a car bomb detonated first, and as people gathered at the scene, a suicide bomber then blew himself up.
“They attack the restaurants because they hate to see people peacefully spending time together,” said Mohamed Abdi, an Interior Ministry employee at the scene of the attack. “They are committed to obliterating any sign of peace. Because of such attacks, it’s very hard for the government to restore security in the near future.”
Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militia, which has waged a deadly insurgency even after being pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 by African Union forces, claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Government officials, military forces, workers and their security always meet here,” al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters. “We had targeted it even before today, and we shall continue targeting it.”
Last September, two suicide bombers targeted the restaurant in an attack that killed at least 14 people.
