Somalia’s minister for transport and aviation said on Saturday, that the blast that punched a hole in the fuselage of a plane this week was caused by a bomb meant to kill everyone on board.
“We have confirmed that it was a bomb that exploded in the Daallo Airlines flight. It was meant to kill all aboard,” the minister, Ali Ahmed Jamac, told a news conference.
One passenger was killed and two others sustained injuries following the explosion on the Airbus A321, which is operated by Somali company Daallo Airlines. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu airport on Tuesday.
United States investigators think that the attack was carried out by Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, but the organization is yet to comment .
Similarly, CNN reported that a suspect has been arrested. He was identified as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, an elderly Somali national. Investigators suspect he brought along with him a laptop with a hidden bomb onto the plane, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The source said Borleh had precise knowledge of where to sit and how to place the device for maximum damage. The source also said, given the placement, the blast likely would have set off a catastrophic secondary explosion in the fuel tank had the aircraft reached cruising altitude.
The bomb contained a military grade of the explosive TNT, according to the source, quoting an initial analysis of residue recovered retrieved from the aircraft.
