MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's
al Shabaab insurgents said on Saturday they were responsible for a
blast that punched a hole in the fuselage of a plane last week that the
government said was caused by a bomb meant to kill everyone on board.
The suspected suicide bomber was sucked out of the
Daallo Airlines plane through a one-meter (one-yard) wide hole when the
blast ripped open the pressurized cabin in flight, officials said last
week."Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen carried out the airborne operation as a retribution for the crimes committed by the coalition of Western crusaders and their intelligence agencies against the Muslims of Somalia," al Shabaab said in an emailed statement.
Last week, U.S. government sources said investigators suspected the Islamist militant group, which has links to al Qaeda, was responsible.
The plane made an emergency landing in the Somali capital.
Daallo's chief executive said the bomber was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight that was canceled due to bad weather.
Daallo had
picked up the 70 stranded Turkish Airlines passengers to fly them to
Djibouti, including the suicide bomber. In total, the flight had 74
passengers.
Al Shabaab, which wants to overthrow the Somali
government and impose a harsh version of Islamic law, has targeted the
airport in the past. It has also attacked the Turkish embassy in
Mogadishu.
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