Al-Qa'eda-linked Somali Islamists blamed for killing 74 in Uganda World Cup blasts

Somali Islamists linked to al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for two bombs that ripped through crowds watching the World Cup final in Uganda on Sunday, killing at least 74 people.

A man attends to an injured women after a bomb went off in a 

restaurant in Kampala's Kabalagala district 

The first blast left 15 dead at an Ethiopian restaurant popular with expatriates in the capital, Kampala.

Less than 20 minutes later, another explosion hit a crowded rugby club across the city, where hundreds had gathered to watch the tournament's Spain-Holland final on a big screen.

Police said at least 49 people were killed there, including Nate Henn, a 25-year-old American working with a children's charity.

The coordinated attacks dampened Africa's post-World Cup euphoria and suggested that Somalia's 20-year-old civil war was threatening to pour over the country's borders.

A spokesman for al-Shabaab, which claims close connections to al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Yemen, said members of his group had carried out the bombings.

"We will carry out attacks against our enemy wherever they are," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, a militant spokesman in Mogadishu. "No one will deter us from performing our Islamic duty."

If confirmed, it would be the first time that al-Shabab had carried out an attack outside of Somalia.

The group's leaders last week called for deadly attacks on Uganda, which supplies the most troops for the 6,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force deployed in Somalia to prop up the Western-backed government.


Telegraph: