Hundreds Dead in Mogadishu Blast — What Does it Mean for U.S.?

One of Somalia’s worst-ever terrorist attacks may have been spurred in part by a stepped up U.S. counterterrorism campaign against al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which was blamed by the Somali government for a truck bomb that killed more than 300 people in Mogadishu on Saturday.

Al Shabaab “recently vowed to increase their efforts after the U.S. government announced it was going to be coming after them harder,” said Trevor Thrall, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Defense and Foreign Policy Department.