Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Somalia's Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for those blasts, which ripped through a rugby ground and an Ethiopian restaurant as football fans watched the World Cup final on July 11.
It was the insurgents' first attack on foreign soil - carried out in retaliation for the presence of Ugandan peacekeepers - and they warned more would follow.
Somalia's Minister of National Security and Regional Development, Ahmed Abdisalam Xaji Adan, believes al-Shabaab, which claims links with al-Qaeda, has proven just how dangerous it is to the wider world.
"A year ago no-one believed they would come to Kampala or Kenya or anywhere else," he told journalists in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. "The threat is there, it is real."
"The first victims are Somali people but it will not be limited to Somalis," he added.
Adan called the conflict an international war, and called for more foreign help to combat foreign fighters Western diplomats and security sources say are flocking to the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.
"This may have started between Somali clans 20 years ago, but the reality now is that people are coming to create destruction in a country that is already destroyed," he said. "That is why we need the international community to work with us and finish it off."
The minister was unable to provide figures on how many foreign fighters are present in Somalia.
Currently around 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers are propping up the weak Western-backed government in Somalia, although plans are afoot to reach the planned strength of 8,000.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wants to raise the strength of the force to 20,000 and change the mandate to allow the peacekeepers to go after the insurgents.
Somali has been immersed in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The current insurgency, which has claimed over 20,000 lives, kicked off in early 2007 following Ethiopia's invasion to oust the ruling Islamist regime.
Copyright DPA