Kampala, Uganda – Ugandan police Sunday released photo reconstructions of two men they say were the suicide bombers behind last week’s attacks on World Cup fans that left 76 dead.

"Our intelligence so far confirms that last Sunday’s bomb attacks were suicide attacks," Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, Uganda’s national police chief, told reporters. The international police organization Interpol was distributing the photo reconstructions in an attempt to identify the attackers, Kayihura said.

Interpol and the FBI have helped confirm the attacks were suicide bombings, he said. Investigators suspect that two severed heads found parts attached are those of the bombers, he added.

The Kampala bombings struck an Ethiopian restaurant and a rugby center where crowds of people were watching the World Cup final match. Officials also have found an explosive-laden belt in a nightclub trash can in a Kampala suburb, suggesting a third attack was planned but not carried out.

The Somali Islamist insurgent movement Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attacks, calling them retaliation for Ugandan participation in an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Uganda is hosting an African Union summit this week, and Kayihura said the Ugandan government has urged the organization for the authority to hunt down Al-Shabaab members "in their bases which are known to us."

The AU peacekeeping mission AMISOM has about 5,200 troops – 3,200 from Uganda, the rest from Burundi. The troops are there to support the U.N.-backed transitional government in Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since 1991.

Ugandan and Kenyan authorities have made more than 20 arrests since the bombings, Kayihura said. He said two Ugandans arrested in Kenya were members of the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group that battled government troops in the country’s west during the 1990s, and had ties to Al-Shabaab.

One of those arrested in Kenya has been handed over to Ugandan authorities, while the other was still held in Kenya, he said. He would not disclose details, telling reporters that police are still gathering evidence against them.

"This effort is part of the regional and continental help we are receiving since the attack," he said.

Kayihura said several non-Ugandans, including Pakistani nationals, were among those arrested. But he said none of those have been definitely linked to the Kampala attacks, and most were taken into custody for having "unclear" travel documents. Meanwhile, four Ethiopians picked up by police after the bombing have been found "free of any criminality" and released.

KAMPALA, Uganda — An al-Qaeda-linked Somali militia claimed responsibility Monday for back-to-back bombings in the Ugandan capital that killed at least 74 people watching the World Cup final on television, marking the first major international attack by the group in a region where the United States and its allies are attempting to stem the rise of Islamic radicalism. In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a top spokesman for the hardline al-Shabab said the group carried out the bombings, and he threatened further attacks if Uganda and Burundi continued to supply troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

“Al Shabab was behind the blasts,” Ali Mohamud Raghe, the militia’s spokesman told reporters. “Thanks to our martyrs who carried out the attacks.”
The powerful explosions tore through two venues in Kampala where crowds were watching broadcasts of the World Cup final late Sunday, killing at least 74 and wounding scores of others, Ugandan police said. At least one American was killed and several were wounded, according to the U.S. Embassy here.  The bombings unfolded at the Kyadondo Rugby Club and at the Ethiopian Village restaurant where hundreds of boisterous and cheering soccer fans, including clusters of foreigners, had gathered to watch Spain beat the Netherlands in the final in South Africa. Among the dead at the rugby club was Nate Henn, 25, of Wilmington, Del., a worker for Invisible Children, a California-based aid group that helps child soldiers, the group said on its Web site. A 16-year-old girl from Ellicott City, Md., Emily Kerstetter, was injured, according to WMAR-TV in Baltimore. She was in Kampala with her grandmother’s church group from Pennsylvania.  Ugandan Police Chief Kale Kaihura immediately pointed blame at al-Shabab, a hard-line militia with growing ties to al-Qaeda that has perpetrated several bombings in recent months in Somalia. 

KAMPALA, Uganda - Simultaneous explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant. 64 people were killed including one American. Police feared an Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group was behind the attacks.

Blood and pieces of flesh littered the floor among overturned chairs at the scenes of the blasts, which went off as people watched the game between Spain and the Netherlands late Sunday. The attack on the rugby club, where crowds sat outside watching a large-screen TV, left 49 dead. Fifteen others were killed in the restaurant explosion.One American was killed in the blasts, said Joann Lockard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala. Several Americans from a Pennsylvania church group were wounded in the restaurant attack including Kris Sledge, 18, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

“I remember blacking out, hearing people screaming and running,” Sledge said from the hospital. His right leg was wrapped and he had burns on his face. “I love the place here but I’m wondering why this happened and who did this … At this point we’re just glad to be alive.”

Kampala’s police chief said he believed Somalia’s most feared militant group, al-Shabab, could be responsible for the attack. Al-Shabab is known to have links with Al Qaeda, and it counts militant veterans from the Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts among its ranks. Simultaneous attacks are also one of Al Qaeda’s hallmarks.The explosions came just two days after an al-Shabab commander, Sheik Muktar Robow, called for militants to attack sites in Uganda and Burundi — two nations that contribute troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. A senior police official at the scene who said he could not be identified said that 64 people had been killed — 49 from the rugby club and 15 at the Ethiopian restaurant.

A head and legs were found at the rugby club, suggesting a suicide bomber may have been to blame, an AP reporter at the scene said.,Police Chief Kale Kaihura said he suspected al-Shabab had carried out the attack. The group’s fighters, including two recruited from the Somali communities in the United States, have carried out multiple suicide bombings in Somalia. In Mogadishu, Somalia, Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa, an al-Shabab commander, told The Associated Press early Monday that he was happy with the attacks in Uganda. Issa refused to confirm or deny that al-Shabab was responsible for the bombings.

“Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah’s anger be upon those who are against us,” Sheik said.In addition to Uganda’s troops in Mogadishu, Uganda also hosts Somali soldiers trained in U.S. and European-backed programs White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the U.S. was prepared to provide any necessary assistance to the Ugandan government.

“The president is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks, and sends his condolences to the people of Uganda and the loved ones of those who have been killed or injured,” Vietor said.
Kenya’s foreign minister, Moses M. Wetangula, told The Associated Press last week that enough veteran militants from the Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts have relocated to Somalia to spark worry inside the international community.International militants have flocked to Somalia because the country’s government controls only a few square miles of the capital, Mogadishu, leaving most of the rest of the country as lawless territory where insurgents can train and plan attacks unimpeded.