Bombs kill at least 17 in Mogadishu
MOGADISHU: Two car Abdikadir Abdirahman, bombs killed at least 17 people director of Amin ambulances, in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu said the emergency service had on Saturday, police said, and carried 17 people injured from militant group Al Shabaab the hotel blast. claimed responsibility. A huge cloud of smoke rose
A suicide car bomb was over the scene and a witness saw rammed into a hotel, Nasahablod over a dozen wrecked cars and Two, about 600 metres from the bloodstains in front of the hotel. presidential palace, and then Sporadic gunfire could be heard armed militants stormed the in the vicinity. building, police said. Al Shabaab, responsible for
A few minutes later a car scores of such attacks in the bomb exploded near the former country’s long civil war, said it parliament house nearby. carried out Saturday’s bombings.
Ali Nur, a police officer, said “We targeted ministers and 17 people, mostly policemen, security officials who were inside had died in the blasts. the hotel. We are fighting inside,”
“Security forces have entered Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s a small portion of the hotel military operations spokesman, building ... the exchange ofsaid. gunfire is hellish,” he said. He said the hotel belonged
The police personnel who to Somalia’s internal security died had been stationed close minister, Mohamed Abukar to hotel’s gate. The dead also Islow. Al Shabaab is fighting to included a former lawmaker, he topple Somalia’s internationallysaid. Fighting continued to rage backed government and impose inside the hotel and police said its strict interpretation of the death toll was likely to rise. religious law.