IS claims responsibility for bomb attack in Uganda

Ugandan police members secure the scene of an explosion in Komamboga, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Kampala, Uganda October 24, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

CAIRO — Islamic state claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed at least one person in Uganda’s capital Kampala on Saturday night, the militant group said in a statement posted in an affiliated Telegram channel late on Sunday.

The group said that some of its members detonated an explosive device in a bar where “members and spies of the Crusader Ugandan government were gathering” in Kampala.

The bomb, packed with nails and shrapnel, targeted a pork restaurant on the outskirts of the capital, police said on Sunday.

Information gathered indicated that three men, disguised as customers, visited the restaurant, placed a polythene bag under a table and left moments before the explosion, police said.

The explosion killed a 20-year-old waitress and injured three people, two of whom were in critical condition, police said, adding all indications suggest an act of domestic terror.

President Yoweri Museveni said the attack “seems to be a terrorist act”.

In 2010, the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab killed dozens of people in Kampala in a bomb attack, saying it was punishing Uganda for deploying troops in Somalia.