Somalia: Al-Shabab Claims Responsibility for Plane Bomb

By ABDI GULED, ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Feb 13, 2016, 10:52 AM ET

Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, said Saturday they carried out the bombing of a commercial passenger jet earlier this month that blew a hole in the fuselage, sucking out the suspected bomber and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.

The explosion targeted Western and Turkish intelligence agents aboard the Daallo Airlines flight to Djibouti on Feb. 2, al-Shabab said in a statement. It said the bombing had been planned to destroy the Airbus 321 plane but it failed. Al-Shabab, who are allied to al-Qaida, said they will continue such attacks.

The bomb exploded shortly after takeoff from Mogadishu airport, when the plane was at 11,000 feet and ascending. Experts say if the plane had been at its intended cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, the explosion could have brought down the aircraft.

Security video footage taken at Mogadishu airport shows two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to the suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security checkpoint. Somali authorities say at least one of the men delivering the laptop was an airport employee. Authorities believe the laptop-like device was the bomb that caused the explosion. At least 20 people including the airport employee have been arrested in connection to the attack.

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