KAMPALA (Reuters/AFP) – Somali rebel group Al-Shabaab said on Monday they had carried out two bomb attacks in Uganda that killed 74 soccer fans watching the World Cup final on television, Al Jazeera television reported.
The explosions in the closing moments of Sunday’s match ripped through two crowded venues in the capital Kampala — an Ethiopian-themed restaurant and a rugby club.
Al-Shabaab rebels in Somalia have threatened to attack Uganda for sending peacekeeping troops to the anarchic country to prop up the Western-backed government.
“At one of the scenes, investigators identified a severed head of a Somali national, which we suspect could have been a suicide bomber,” said army spokesman Felix Kulayigye.
“We suspect it’s Al-Shabaab because they’ve been promising this for long,” he said on Monday.
An Al-Shabaab commander in Mogadishu praised the attacks but admitted he did not know whether his group was behind them.
“Uganda is a major infidel country supporting the so-called government of Somalia,” said Sheikh Yusuf Isse, an Al -Shabaab commander in the Somali capital.
“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.
Burundi, which also contributes troops to the Somalia peacekeeping mission, has stepped up security, an army spokesman said in the capital, Bujumbura.
One American was among those killed and President Barack Obama, condemning what he called deplorable and cowardly attacks, said Washington was ready to help Uganda in hunting down those responsible. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also condemned the attacks on “innocent spectators.”
One bombing targeted the Ethiopian Village restaurant, a popular night-spot which was heaving with soccer fans and is frequented by foreign visitors. The second attack struck the Lugogo Rugby Club also showing the match.
Twin coordinated attacks have been a hallmark of Al-Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin LadenÂ’s militant network.
“Right now the official figure is 74 dead,” government spokesman Fred Opolot said. “There is a white woman, one person of Indian descent, 10 Eritreans or Ethiopians.”
The US State Department confirmed that one American citizen was killed and five injured. The US charity Invisible Children said one of its members, Nate Henn from Wilmington, Delaware, had been killed in the rugby club blast.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni visited the rugby club.
The blasts come in the closing moments of the final between Spain and the Netherlands and left shocked survivors reeling among corpses and scattered chairs.
“We were watching soccer here and then when there were three minutes to the end of the match an explosion came … and it was so loud,” witness Juma Seiko said at the rugby club.
Heavily armed police cordoned off both blast sites and searched the areas with sniffer dogs while dazed survivors helped pull the wounded from the wreckage.
In Kampala, Somali residents voiced fears of a backlash.
In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said Obama was “deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks.”
“The United States is ready to provide any assistance requested by the Ugandan government,” said Hammer.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned Monday bomb blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
A statement issued by BanÂ’s office said the United Nations secretary general had expressed hope the perpetrators of the attacks would be brought to justice and prosecuted.
Ban “strongly condemns the vicious bombings in Kampala that claimed the lives of dozens of people and left hundreds wounded among Ugandans and other nationalities at establishments where they were watching the World Cup final,” it said.