EVENT SUMMARY
- Tuesday 2nd February 2016, a commercial airliner makes an emergency landing at Mogadishu International Airport.
- Corresponding reports from witnesses reveal that a loud blast was heard shortly after the plane takeoff.
- Plane managed to land safely. Two people sustained slight injuries as 74 passengers and plane crew were safely evacuated.
- Investigations on the cause of the blast launched.
- Somali based Al-Shabaab group linked to bid to blow up the Daallo commercial airliner
- Somalia authorities arrest 20 over the plane bombing.
Investigations over the Daallo commercial airliner emergency landing at Mogadishu have pointed involvement of Al-Shabaab militants.
According to Somalia’s Minister of air transport and civil aviation and following investigation report, the militant group Al-Shabaab was responsible for the bomb blast on Feb. 2 that forced the Daallo Airlines passenger jet to make an emergency landing.
Somalia security forces have so far arrested 20 people including some officials of the civil aviation on suspicion of collaborating with a suspected suicide bomber responsible for the blast.
Somali’s government spokesman Abdisalam Atto confirmed the arrests. Atto accused two of the arrested persons of handing over a laptop to a suspected suicide bomber which he ‘used’ to bomb the plane.
According to security sources, among the arrested suspect include a man who has been under the police radar over what they termed as close relations with the Al Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab.
CCTV FOOTAGE
The arrest development comes after CCTV images released by the Somali Intelligence Agency on Sunday showed the suspected bomber identified as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh receiving a laptop from an alleged airport’s staffer inside the airport before boarding the plane.
On Saturday, Somalia’s Air and Land Transport Minister Ali Jama Jangali confirmed that a bomb caused the blast on the Daallo commercial airliner that was destined for Djibouti.
SECURITY BEEFED
Following the incident, most of flights bound for Mogadishu have been cancelled with Somali government vowing to heighten the security at the Mogadishu international airport to preempt any possible terror threats as the investigating authorities promises to give out full report on the incident in the coming days .
