Two deadly car bombs and a nearly 12-hour siege have killed at least 25 people in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in an attack claimed by the Al Shabaab militant group.
A suicide car bomb was rammed into a hotel, Nasahablod Two, about 600 metres from the presidential palace, and then armed militants stormed the building, police said.
A few minutes later a car bomb exploded near the former parliament house nearby.
Attackers stormed the hotel after the initial blasts, where they remained for hours.
Ali Nur, a police officer, said the exchange of gunfire during the fight was “hellish”.
“The death toll may rise. We suspect some other militants disguised themselves and escaped with the residents who were rescued,” police officer Major Mohamed Hussein said.
“Three militants were captured alive and two others blew up themselves after they were shot.”
The police personnel who died had been stationed close to hotel’s gate.
The dead also included a former politician, he said.
Mr Hussein said 30 people, including a government minister, were rescued from the hotel while gunfire was exchanged.
Among the dead were a mother and three children, including a baby, all shot in the head, Mr Hussein said.
Other victims included a senior Somali police colonel, a former lawmaker and a former government minister.
AL SHABAAB CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
Islamist group Al Shabaab, responsible for scores of such attacks in the country’s long civil war, said it carried out Saturday’s bombings.
“We targeted ministers and security officials who were inside the hotel. We are fighting inside,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman, said during the siege.
He said the hotel belonged to Somalia’s internal security minister, Mohamed Abukar Islow.
Al Shabaab is fighting to topple Somalia’s internationally-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.
The blasts have come two weeks after more than 350 people were killed in a massive truck bombing on a busy Mogadishu street in the country’s worst-ever attack.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said the new attack was meant to instil fear in Somalis who united after that, marching in the thousands through Mogadishu in defiance of Al Shabaab.
The US military also has stepped up military efforts against Al Shabaab this year in Somalia, carrying out nearly 20 drone strikes, as the global war on extremism moves deeper into the African continent.
Source: ABC
