Al-Shabab claims deadly Djibouti blasts

Somali rebel group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a restaurant attack in the tiny East African country of Djibouti which left at least three people dead, including two security officers.

Saturday’s double explosion that targeted a restaurant popular with tourists and Western security officials was the first of its kind in the former French colony.

“The attack was carried out against the French crusaders for their complicity in the massacres of our Muslim brothers in the Central African Republic and for their active role in training and equipping the apostate Djiboutian troops in Somalia and their growing intervention in the affairs of our Muslim lands, ” the group, which wants to impose strict Sharia law in Somalia, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The blasts at La Chaumiere restaurant wounded 11 other people.

The French foreign ministry confirmed that several of its nationals were slightly wounded in the attack, and the Netherlands’ De Telegraaf newspaper reported that six Dutch soldiers who had been taking part in an anti-piracy mission were also lightly wounded.

Djibouti hosts the United States’ only military base in Africa where drones are operated from. Earlier this month the US signed a $63m a year 10-year lease for the base known as Camp Lemonnier.

The tiny East African country has also contributed troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia.