Uganda’s police Tuesday were hunting suspects in the World Cup party attacks that killed at least 76, hoping the discovery of an unexploded suicide vest could lead them to a would-be bomber.
The attacks that ripped through a crowded bar and a restaurant in the Ugandan capital of Kampala Sunday night were claimed by Somalia’s al Qaeda-inspired al Shebab insurgents, who described them as retaliation for Uganda’s troop deployment in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
Police Chief Kale Kayihura said a suicide vest, laden with explosives and fitted with a detonator, was found packed in a black laptop bag at a club in Kampala’s Makindye district Monday.
“We have established that what was found at the discotheque was in fact a suicide vest, and it could also be used as an IED (improvised explosive device),” he told reporters.
Kayihura went on to explain that the bomber may have changed his mind before setting off the charge.
He added that a number of arrests were carried out in connection with this particular incident but did not elaborate on the number or identities of those detained.
Kayihura said that the bombers’ method of operating appeared to support the claim laid by al Shebab, but he also pointed a finger at a homegrown Muslim rebel group called the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
“Shebab is linked with ADF. ADF is composed of Ugandans, Shebab and ADF are linked to al Qaeda,” he said.
The bombings were the deadliest in East Africa since the 1998 al Qaeda attacks against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
They were the first ever attack by al Shebab outside Somalia, marking an unprecedented internationalization of Somalia’s 20-year-old civil conflict.
“We are behind the attack because we are at war with them,” Ali Mohamoud Rage, al Shebab group’s spokesman, told reporters in Mogadishu Monday.
The movement’s top leader warned in an audio message earlier this month that Uganda and Burundi would face retaliation for contributing to an African Union force supporting the western-backed Somali transitional government.
“We will continue the attacks if they continue to kill our people,” Rage said. “This was a defensive measure against the Ugandans who came to our country and killed our people. This was retaliation for their actions.”
The Ugandans were the first to deploy to Somalia in early 2007.
Medics and officials were still trying to identify 33 bodies late Monday. Most of the identified victims were Ugandans but also included an American national and an Irishwoman.
The attacks, which dampened Africa’s party mood following the successful completion of the football World Cup in South Africa, drew a barrage of international condemnation.
