Bomb blasts in Uganda kill 64

Bomb explosions that tore through two bars in the Ugandan capital at the weekend killed at least 64 people and wounded 65 others, a national police spokeswoman said Monday.

"We have 64 dead and 65 injured. The nationalities of all the fatalities will be released later," Judith Nabakooba told AFP.

The blasts went off as crowds of football fans were watching the World Cup finals in an Ethiopian restaurant on the southern outskirts of Kampala and a rugby club in the east of the city. An American national was among the dead, a US embassy official here said.

Police chief Kale Kayihura said the explosions could be linked to recent threats by Somalia's al Qaeda-inspired Shebab militia to countries that have sent troops to the African Union peace force there. Uganda and Burundi are the only African countries to have deployed forces to the war-wracked Horn of African country.

US President Barack Obama called the deadly explosions that ripped through two restaurants in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday "deplorable and cowardly," a spokesman said. "The president is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks, and sends his condolences to the people of Uganda and the loved ones of those who have been killed or injured,"

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement. "The United States is ready to provide any assistance requested by the Ugandan government."