Somalia's Al Shabab claims responsibility for Uganda bombings

'Soft targets'

The coordinated attacks – apparently by suicide bombers, 20 minutes apart, in separate locations, aimed at soft targets including Westerners – bore the hallmarks of Somalia’s increasingly radicalized Al Shabab group, analysts say.

"The reason people suspect Al Shabab is that it has the motivation and the opportunity," says E.J. Hogendoorn, director of the Horn of Africa program at the International Crisis Group in Nairobi.

Al Shabab's motive for attacking Kampala springs from Uganda’s support of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, which Al Shabab is fighting in Mogadishu.

Uganda provides most of the 6,100 peacekeepers in the African Union force called the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Burundi has also sent soldiers, and has been also been threatened by Al Shabab.

The AMISOM deployment is in Somalia protecting Mogadishu's seaport, its airport, and the TFG government itself.

Al Shabab has been active in attacking AMISOM troops, and its leaders last week made threats against Ugandan diplomatic missions and called for attacks inside Uganda. It is unclear whether bombers traveled from Somalia, or were recruited in Uganda, where 12 percent of the population are Muslim, and where a significant Somali immigrant population has settled.

First Al Shabab attack outside Somalia

If Al Shabab's involvement is confirmed, it would be the first time that the group, which claims connections to Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Yemen, has exported its fight outside of Somalia’s borders.

This has raised fears among regional neighbors that Sunday’s attacks may not be the last.

“To be honest, it was a shock,” says a European diplomat in Kampala who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Everyone knew that Shabab had threatened something here, but there was a level of skepticism, which has now tragically been proven to have been too much positive thinking. The question colleagues in other capitals around the region will be asking is, 'Are we too complacent too?'”

Focus on World Cup

Attacking a crowd during a World Cup final match would also not have been coincidental, Mr. Hogendoorn adds.

"This is a double warning," he says. "As you know, Al Shabab has been watching the World Cup as an event, and they have killed people in Mogadishu for watching matches. But these attacks were in Kampala, they were attacks where there were a lot of expatriates, and they were attacks during the World Cup final, which would have required a certain amount of planning. I suspect it was done during the World Cup for a reason."

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the US was prepared to provide any necessary assistance to the Ugandan government.

President Obama was "deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks," Mr. Vietor said.

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