100 people killed after car bomb explosions in Somalia

(CNN) — At least 100 people were killed after two car bombs exploded near Somalia’s Ministry of Education in the capital Mogadishu on Saturday.

More than 300 people were injured in the attack, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a video statement posted on his official Twitter account.

Mohamud attributed the authorship of the events to the terrorist group Al Shabaab from Somalia.

“Today’s cruel and cowardly terrorist attack against innocent people by the morally bankrupt criminal group Al Shabaab cannot discourage us, but will further strengthen our resolve to defeat them once and for all,” Mohamud wrote on Twitter.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, but the Islamist group Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for other recent attacks.

“Our government and our brave people will continue to defend Somalia against evil,” Mohamud added.

The two car bombs exploded near a busy intersection in the capital and near the Ministry of Education, according to an official from the president’s office.

The intersection, the Zobe Junction, was the site of a deadly bomb attack on October 14, 2017, killing more than 500 people and injuring another 300.

“By God’s will, another October like this will not happen. They will not have the opportunity to commit something like this,” Mohamud said, calling Saturday’s attack a repeat of the 2017 attacks.

Mohamed Moalim, a restaurant owner near the ministry, said his wife, Fardawsa Mohamed, a mother of six, tried to help the blast victims.

“We couldn’t stop her,” he told Reuters. “She was killed by the second explosion.”

Mohamud said the injured were in serious condition and the death toll could rise.

“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical problems, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were fighting for the lives of their families,” he said after visiting the scene of the events, Reuters added.

Abdullahi Aden said his friend Ilyas Mohamed Warsame was killed while traveling in his three-wheeled “tuk tuk” taxi to see relatives before returning home to Britain.

“We recognized the license plate of the tuk tuk, which was now in rubble,” Aden said.

“Exhausted and desperate, we found his body at the hospital at midnight,” he said. “I can’t get the image out of my head.”