BY AFP
Twin suicide bombings killed three people and wounded several dozen more in Uganda’s capital Kampala on Tuesday, police said as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The police earlier blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group active in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo blamed for a string of recent attacks in Uganda and which Washington has linked to IS.
Two suicide bombers on motorcycles — disguised as local “boda boda” motorcycle taxi drivers — detonated a device near the entrance to parliament, killing a passerby. A third attacker targeted a checkpoint near the central police station, killing two people, police spokesman Fred Enanga said.
The explosions in Kampala’s central business district occurred within minutes of each other, shortly after 10am, and left “bodies shattered and scattered”, he said.
Police foiled a third attack, recovering an improvised explosive device from the home of an alleged suicide bomber who was shot and wounded, Enanga added. They were in pursuit of other members of the group.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the man “later died” and vowed that the attackers “will perish”.
“The public should maintain vigilance of checking people at entry points to bus parks, hotels, churches, mosques, markets,” he said.
The blast near the police station shattered windows while the one near parliament set nearby parked cars on fire, Uganda’s Assistant Inspector General of police Edward Ochom told AFP earlier.
The Ugandan Red Cross said 21 of the 33 people wounded were police officers.
‘It was so loud’
The attacks follow two blasts last month — a bus explosion near Kampala that wounded many people and a bombing at a roadside eatery in the capital that killed one woman.
Police said both those explosions were carried out by the ADF.
Uganda has also blamed the group for a foiled bomb attack in August on the funeral of an army commander who led a major offensive against Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
