Truck bombing kills 70 in Somalia

The death toll from a truck bomb in Somalia’s capital has risen to 70, rescue officials said.

Ali Muse, the chief of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, said that at least 42 others were wounded when a truck laden with explosives blew up in front of the Ministry of Education.

Ali Hussein, a police officer in Mogadishu, said the vehicle blew up after pulling up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the ministry offices.

The al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab claimed the attack on a website it uses.

The blast has shattered over a month of relative calm in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab withdrew from the city in August amid an offensive by African Union forces, and as victims of a famine in the south began flooding into the city.

Al-Shabab is waging an insurgency against a weak, UN-backed Somali government.