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At least 100 people were killed during two car bombings in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital city, on Saturday (October 29), President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced via the Associated Press.
Mohamud, who addressed reporters at the site of the bombings, said 300 people were wounded and that the death toll could rise in what is already the deadliest attack to take place in the country since a truck bombing that killed more than 500 people at the same spot nearly five years ago.
“We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment,” Mohamud said via the AP.
The al-Qaida-linkeed al-Shabab extremist group -- which has a history of targeting Mogadishu and other cities in Somalia -- claimed responsibility for the car bombings, claiming it intended to hit the education ministry, which it referred to as an "enemy base" that receives support from non-Muslim countries and "is committed to removing Somali children from the Islamic faith," the AP reports.
Al-Shabab typically doesn't claim responsibility to attacks that kill large numbers of civilians, as was the case in the October 2017 bombing at the same site in Mogadishu.
The group has, however, publicly expressed its displeasure in the government aiming to shut down its financial network and said it's committed to fighting until Somalia is ruled by Islamic law and warned civilians to stay away from government areas.
The attack took place as Somalia's president, prime minister and other senior officials were meeting in Mogadishu to discuss violent extremism targeting the country, especially incidents carried out by al-Shabab.
Mohamud, who was elected as Somalia's president earlier this year, claimed the country was "winning" in an ongoing war with al-Shabab.
Officials said it wasn't immediately clear how the vehicles loaded with explosives made it past checkpoints to enter the city.