Twin Bombings Kill 70 Watching World Cup Match

It appears that Somali terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda were behind a bombing in Uganda yesterday. A large crowd had gathered to watch the World Cup finals match between Spain and the Netherlands and two suicide bombers blew up in the crowd. One bomb blew up at a rugby club. The other blew up at a restaurant where people were watching the match. More than 70 people were killed in the attacks.

The blasts hit in the capital, Kampala, within 50 minutes of each other. The first one struck an Ethiopian restaurant in a neighborhood dotted with bars and popular among expatriates; two others exploded at the rugby center.

A senior Ugandan government official confirmed there were three bombs. The second one at the rugby club was the most severe, said the official, who is not authorized to speak to the media because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Immediate suspicion swirled around Somalia Islamist groups. Islamic militants battling Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government have threatened attacks on Uganda and Burundi, which contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

"Our first suspicion is that this could be the work of terrorists from Somalia because of our forces in that country," the Ugandan government official said. "There is an investigation going on, our security agencies are analyzing the situation on the ground, but our first suspicion is Al-Shabaab. We've had this suspicion all along."

"We wish to condemn the criminality of these attacks," Museveni said. "From a casual look at the scene, I'm confident police will be able to reconstruct the crime scene ... We shall go after them because we know where they come from."

The bombings, he said, show "criminality, and terrorism has always been hovering over us."

In a government statement, Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed also blamed Al-Shabaab, saying he "condemns in the strongest terms the despicable terrorist acts that killed over 60 people in Kampala."

Al Shabaab terrorists have threatened attacks against Uganda for quite some time now, and it appears that they made good on those threats. An unnamed terror leader praised the attacks, but stopped short of taking credit for them:

An al Shabaab commander in Mogadishu praised the attacks but admitted he did not know whether they were the work of his group, which is fighting to overthrow the Somali government.

"Uganda is a major infidel country supporting the so-called government of Somalia," said Sheikh Yusuf Isse, an al Shabaab commander in Somalia's capital Mogadishu.

"We know Uganda is against Islam and so we are very happy at what has happened in Kampala. That is the best news we ever heard," he said.

These Islamic terrorists praised those who murdered innocents while watching the World Cup.

This is barbarism in full display and shows the lengths to which these terrorists will go to spread fear and cause mass casualties in pursuit of their theological objectives.

UPDATE:
Al Shabaab has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks in Uganda, where the death toll is now 74.