Somalia sentences truck bombing suspect to death

A military court in Somalia on Tuesday sentenced a man to death for the October bombing that killed more than 500 people in Mogadishu, the country’s capital. Gen. Hassan Ali Shute, chief of the military court, found Hassan Aden Isak guilty of coordinating the truck bombing, the deadliest terror attack in the Somalia’s history. The 23-year-old denied any involvement in the attack during the trial. The court also sentenced another terror suspect, Abduallhi Ibrahim, to life in prison in absentia for belonging to extremist group al-Shabaab. A third man, Abdiweli Ahmed Diriye, received a three-year prison sentence for allowing the truck to pass through security checkpoints. The court freed two other men arrested following the attack, finding them not guilty. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Somalia accused al-Shabaab of coordinating the assault. Security officials said the bomb that exploded on a crowded Mogadishu street weighed between 1,300 and 1,700 pounds.