New al-Qaida Threat: Somali Group Claims Blasts

KAMPALA, Uganda - East Africa saw the emergence of new international terrorist groups Wednesday, as Somalia's most dangerous al-Qaida-linked police claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Uganda that killed 74 people during the World Cup.
Claim by al-Shabab, which the fighters are trained in militant veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, resets security equation in Eastern Africa and has a wider impact throughout the world. The group has recruited the former Somali-Americans to carry out suicide bombings in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab has long threatened to attack the border from Somalia, but the explosion last Sunday that the first group of these.
"We warned Uganda not to deploy troops in Somalia, they ignored us," said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, Al Shabab's spokesman. "We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignore that. Explosions in Kampala were only minor post them. ... We will target them everywhere, if Uganda does not withdraw from our land. "
Rage said the second country with peacekeeping forces, Mogadishu - Burundi - may soon face attacks. Fighting in Mogadishu between Somali forces and militants, or the African Union peacekeeping often killed civilians.
Attacks are out of Somalia presents a dangerous new step in the growing al-Shabab militant path and raises questions about his future plans. U.S. State Department said al-Shabab a terrorist organization. Other neighboring nations - Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, together with Burundi - may also face new attacks, analysts say.
Despite the threats, Uganda army spokesman, said the county does not remove. Al Shabab is the reason why we should stay in Somalia. We need to reassure Somalia, "said Lt. Colonel Felix Kulaigye.
That the victims in Sunday's twin blasts reached 74 on Monday, Ugandan officials said. Investigators combed through the blast sites, an outdoor exhibition at the rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant, a nation despised by Al Shabab. Investigators found a sure head of what appeared to be Somali suicide bomber.
A California-based aid group, but said one of his works seemed dead. Officials said 60 Ugandans, nine Ethiopians or Eritreans, one Irish woman, and one Asian among them were also killed. Two people can not recognize. Eighty five people were injured.
At least three were wounded in a church group from Pennsylvania, who went to Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala early to get good seats for the game, "said Lori Ssebulime, the American who is married to Ugandan. Group Three Ugandans were killed when an explosion erupted. One was injured in 16-year-old American Emily Kerstetter.
"Emily was rolling around screaming in a pool of blood, said Ssebulime, who helped lead the U.S. church groups since 2004. "Five minutes before he went out, Emily said he was going to cry so hard, because he does not want to leave. He wanted to stay here the rest of the summer.
Blood and pieces of flesh littered the floor among the overturned chairs the scenes of the blasts, which went off as people follow the game between Spain and the Netherlands.
"We are enjoying a very loud explosions took place," said Andrew Oketa, one of the hospital survivors. "I fell down and became unconscious. When I regained, I realized that I was in a hospital bed with a deep wound on my head. "
At a wrap-up news briefing Monday, South Africa, FIFA president Sepp Blatter denounced the violence against fans following the game.
"Can you link the World Cup, I do not know ... Whatever happened, whether or not connected to, it is something that we all should condemn, "he said.
Analysts have long feared al-Shabab was turning more and more violent. International Crisis Group said in May that increased the foreign fighters inside the Al Shabab, the group "quickly transformed into full Al Qaida franchise can become irreversible. It can cause havoc even well beyond the borders of Somalia, and the (Somali government), and the international community can not be selected bystanders ».
Invisible Children, a San Diego, California-based aid group that helps child soldiers, identified the dead American, one of its employees, Nate Henn, who was killed in rugby field. Henn, 25, was a native of Wilmington, Delaware.
"He sacrificed his comfort to live in humble service of God and a better world," the group said.
That the FBI sent agents based in the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya to assist the investigation and looking into the circumstances of the death of American citizens, a State Department official in Washington said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the probe. Interpol said in a statement that it was dispatching a team to Uganda.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni toured the blast sites on Monday said that the terrorists behind the bombings should fight soldiers, not "people who simply enjoy themselves."
"We should go to them wherever they are», Museveni said. "We look for them, and download them, as we always do."
Kulayigye, the Ugandan army spokesman, said was too early to speculate on any military response to attacks.
Uganda is still planning to host the African Union summit in late July. More than 50 heads of state or government are expected to attend.
Ethiopia, which fought two wars with Somalia, a longtime enemy of al-Shabab and other Somali militants, who accuse their neighbors of meddling in Somali affairs. Ethiopia had troops in Somalia between December 2006 and 2009 to back Somalia's fragile government against Islamic insurgents.
Sunday's terrorist attacks in the first blow to East Africa. U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were the targets of deadly twin bombings Al-Qaida in 1998, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans. Israeli airliner and hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, to terrorists in 2002.
United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist land, because Osama bin Laden declared his support for Islamic radicals there.