By Theodore Shoebat

Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia used a truck bomb to slaughter at least ninety-people, including two Turkish nationals. As we read from a report from Reuters:

At least 90 people were killed when a bomb-laden truck exploded at a busy checkpoint in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, an international organization working in the country said, in the deadliest attack in more than two years.

The dead included many students and two Turkish nationals, Somalia’s foreign minister said, adding that dozens were injured.

Saturday is a working day in the Muslim country and the explosion occurred during the morning rush hour. Rescuers carried bodies past the twisted wreckage of a vehicle and a minibus taxi smeared with blood.

A report by the international organization, which did not want to be named, said the death toll was more than 90 and that university students and 17 police officers were among those killed. A Somali MP also tweeted that he had been told the death toll stands at more than 90.

Turkish president Erdogan condemned the attack and pledged that Turkey will continue to work on security infrastructure in Somalia, as we read from Andalou Agency:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday condemned the deadly terror attack in Somalia, and expressed the nation’s sympathy for the East African country.

“I condemn the terror attack in Mogadishu. I wish God’s mercy upon two Turkish citizens and Somali brothers who lost their lives and speedy recovery for those injured,” Erdogan wrote on Twitter.

Offering his condolences to the Turkish nation and Somali people, Erdogan said: “Turkey always stands by Somalia.”

Separately, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a written statement to slam the terror attack.

“Turkey will resolutely continue to provide support for the immediate establishment of peace and stability in Somalia and to ensure the country have the necessary environment for the development …” the statement said.

A military cargo plane is on its way to Mogadishu to carry the wounded Somali people to Turkey for treatment, it noted.

Early Saturday, almost 80 people, including two Turkish nationals, were killed and many more wounded in a suicide truck bomb attack on a security checkpoint in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Turkey has huge interests in east Africa, such as in Sudan and Somalia. Hence why Turkey is expanding its military presence in Africa. The biggest military base in Somalia belongs to Turkey, spanning over four square kilometres and taking two years to construct.  As we read in a report from October of 2017:

Turkey has set up its biggest overseas military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, increasing Ankara’s presence in the Horn of Africa country.

Officially opened on Saturday, the base, which reportedly cost $50m, will train 10,000 Somali troops and has the capacity to train at least 1,500 soldiers at a time, according to Turkish and Somali officials.

Hulusi Akar, Turkey’s chief of General Staff, said at the opening ceremony for the military base:

“This is the largest training base of its kind outside of Turkey … The government of Turkey and its army will provide all the needed support to our brothers in Somalia”

Turkey is going to continue its military operations in Somalia, and it will use this tragedy, and the reality of terrorism, as its pretext.  Turkey is developing her transnational defense infrastructure with a heavy focus in the eastern Mediterranean and east Africa. A recent report from Ahval reads:

 Turkey’s new defence territory covers on the one end the west and south of the Greek island of Crete and the headquarters of the Turkey-Qatar Combined Joint Force Command overlooking the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and the Somali Turkish Task Force Command in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia on the Indian Ocean coast on the other, he said.

Turkey is working to deepen defense ties to Somalia and Sudan which will give her a strategic leverage to bolster her position in the world. As Turkey continues to pursue military independence from NATO, she will as well advance towards her own particular advantage and that is one as the most powerful of the Islamic countries which would entail transnational influence, denoting a capacity for empire, a capacity she desires to bring to fruition. Turkey’s recent purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems was not just a purchase of a high grade weapon, but a geopolitical decision that for one, expresses a defiance towards the US led NATO empire, and secondly, makes a statement of Turkish independence that bypasses the determining hands of the Americans. In the words of Cornelia Meyer: “Turkey is at odds with the US and its other NATO allies over the purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense system and its military incursions into northern Syria.”

Norbert Roettgen, head of the German parliament’s select committee on foreign affairs, has a made a very fascinating comparison between the Middle Eastern situation today and the scenario of the Balkans right before the outbreak of the First World War. One event — the murder of Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia by an occultist Serb nationalist named Gavrilo Princip — was the small match that sparked a fire in a geopolitical room full of flammable fumes. Roettgen believes that another global conflict could spark from a ripple effect reverberating from Syria. This could actually happen. And if it does, expect Germany to join the Turks just as it did in the Great war.