Blast on Somalia airplane ‘was caused by bomb’

“We have established there was a bomb in the Daallo airline flight which was meant to kill all passengers in the plane”, said Transport and Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jama at a press conference in Mogadishu.

A hole is photographed in a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway after an emergency landing at the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia Tuesday Feb. 2, 2016.

One passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, died, according to Somali officials who did not give any details.

The aviation minister would not say whether Boorle was linked to the attack, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.

Somalia faces an insurgency from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has carried out deadly attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries.

If Shabaab was responsible for the suspected bomb attack, it would mark the first instance of the group detonating a bomb onboard a passenger plane.

A senior Somali security official told VOA that the FBI is helping Somalia with the investigation.

One passenger was killed during the explosion, although it is unclear whether his body was ejected from the plane during the incident.

Six people have been arrested in connection with the explosion after CCTV footage from the airport was examined, according to the AP news agency.

The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane took off and it was still ascending.

Col. Nur Hassan said Saturday that the troops entered the town after a brief battle with militants who fled to the outskirts. “I hope it will be the last”.

In their initial appraisal, the Somali authorities attributed the blast to sudden air decompression.

Mogadishu airport is heavily fortified and adjoins the capital’s main base of the African Union mission to Somalia, the 22,000-strong force backing the government in the battle against Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab insurgents.