18 killed in Mogadishu car bombings
MOGADISHU: At least 18 people were killed in twin car bombings in the Somali capital on Saturday that were claimed by Al-Shabab terrorists, police and medics said.
Following the blasts, witnesses reported hearing gunfire and said the entire area around the Nasa Hablod Hotel 2 had been sealed off by security forces.
Fighting continued to rage inside the hotel and police said the death toll was likely to rise.
The twin attacks came just two weeks after a massive truck bomb exploded in central Mogadishu, killing at least 358 people, making it the deadliest attack in the troubled country’s history.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab claimed Saturday’s bombings in a statement on its Andalus radio station, saying its fighters had forced their way into the hotel.
“The Mujahedeen fighters are inside Nasa Hablod 2 hotel where... apostate officials are staying,” said a brief statement posted on a proShabab website, quoting Andalus.
Ali Nur, a police officer, said earlier that 17 people, mostly policemen, had died in the blasts. “Security forces have entered a small portion of the hotel building ... the exchange of gunfire is hellish,” he said.
The police personnel who died had been stationed close to hotel’s gate. The dead also included a former lawmaker, he said.
Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, told Reuters the emergency service had carried 17 people injured from the hotel blast.
An AFP correspondent at the scene reported seeing two people lying on the ground but their condition was not immediately clear.
Mohammed Ahmed Mohamud, who drives a tuktuk taxi, told AFP he saw a soldier stopping a car near the hotel when the blast went off.
“I was driving in front of the hotel, a soldier talked to small luxury car then a big blast went off. Two female passengers were on board, but now I don’t know where they have gone,” he said.
“We can hear the gunfire but it is difficult to know who is fighting, the forces cordoned off the building and no one can go close to it,” said a witness called Abdulahi Nure.
A taxi driver at the scene said he saw four bodies being carried away, while another witness called Yusuf Moalim said a senior police official appeared to be among the victims, whose car had been near the hotel entrance when the blast occurred.
The Nasa Hablod 2 is a popular hotel located in the north of the city whose sister hotel, the Nasa Hablod, was hit by Al-Shabab militants in June 2016, in an attack that killed 11 people, including a junior minister.
That attack also began when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car outside the hotel, which was then stormed by gunmen, provoking an assault that lasted several hours and only ended when special forces killed three attackers inside.
The Al-Shabab lost their foothold in Mogadishu in 2011 but have continued their battle to overthrow the Somali government, launching regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets in the capital and elsewhere.