Five arrested over Eagles bomb attack

Ethiopian police have arrested five people suspected of plotting suicide bombings during Ethiopia’s World Cup qualifying match against the Super Eagles in October, security officials said on Thursday.
The planned attack failed when two Somali suicide bombers accidentally blew themselves up a few kilometers from Addis Ababa Stadium where football fans were gathering.

The men, who plotted the attack, were all Somali nationals belonging to the militant Islamist group, Al Shabaab, the National Intelligence and Security Service and Federal Police Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force said in a joint statement.
“The plan was to hurl bombs at crowds gathered around the stadium and two malls, then enter the stadium and carry out a suicide attack,” one of the suspects said.
The two men who died in October had returned to their rented house in the Bole district of the Ethiopian capital because of heavy security, wearing the explosive vests, which they had planned to detonate once inside the stadium, the suspect said.
They set off the explosives accidentally, government officials said.
Three suspects were detained at the scene, where security forces found hand grenades and football shirts.
The government in Addis Ababa announced last month that its security forces were on heightened alert after receiving strong evidence that Al Shabaab was plotting attacks on its territory.
Security around government institutions, hotels, embassies and offices of humanitarian agencies has been beefed up.
Ethiopia says it has thwarted attacks over the past two years, which it has blamed on domestic rebel groups as well as the Somali insurgents.

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