At least 90 people have been killed and hundreds more injured by a massive truck bomb that was detonated Saturday at a busy security checkpoint in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
Among the dead are reportedly many students and police officers.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the massacre. According to Reuters:
Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab regularly carries out such attacks in an attempt to undermine the government, which is backed by the United Nations and African Union troops . . .
Al Shabaab grew out of a political movement that used Islamic courts to try to impose order on the country. U.S.-backed Ethiopian soldiers defeated the Islamic Courts Union in 2006, but the movement's youth wing split off and launched an insurgency.
Al Shabaab pledged loyalty to al Qaeda in 2012, as the insurgency battled African Union peacekeepers.
Scenes from the blast were shared on Twitter:
