- The Washington Times - Sunday, July 18, 2010

LYON, France | International police agency Interpol on Sunday said it was publishing facial reconstructions of two suspected suicide bombers in the Uganda attacks that killed 76 people watching the final match of the World Cup.

The French-based agency put out a call to police forces in its 188 member countries for information on the suspects and was making the images available to the public in the hope of identifying them, Interpol said in a statement.

“By making these photos public, we believe someone, somewhere could recognize one or both of these men,” Interpol quoted the chief of the Ugandan police, Kale Kayihura, as saying.

“Our investigation into these terrible acts is advancing, and publishing these photos is another step forward in finding those responsible for the death and injury of so many innocent victims,” he added.

Interpol said the images of the suspects’ faces were reconstructed from remains found at the sites of two bombings on July 11 in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Chief Kayihura said Sunday that the heads of two men had been found at the blast sites and that both remained unclaimed and unidentified. He said Interpol and the FBI are helping Ugandan police identify the two suspected bombers.

Ugandan officials earlier suspected suicide bombers, and investigators found an unexploded suicide vest in a disco hall in Kampala.

Chief Kayihura told reporters separately in Kampala on Sunday that security forces had arrested more than 20 people, including several Pakistanis, in the investigation of the bombings.

He said police think the attacks were carried out by two suicide bombers and the facial reconstructions suggested one was of Somali origin and the other a black African of undetermined origin.

The al Qaeda-inspired al-Shabab insurgent group in Somalia has claimed responsibility for the bombings at a Kampala restaurant and a crowded bar where people were watching the World Cup final.

Al-Shabab, Somalia’s most dangerous militant group, said the attacks were in retaliation for the presence of Ugandan troops in an African Union force in Somalia, which is propping up the fragile Western-backed transitional government there.

Interpol, which is based in Lyon in eastern France and helps coordinate police investigations and information-sharing among member countries, said it had sent a team to Uganda to support police there in the investigations.

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