23 dead, over 30 injured in attack on Mogadishu hotel
MOGADISHU, Somalia — A suicide truck bomb exploded outside a popular hotel in Somalia’s capital Saturday. At least 23 people were killed and more than 30 wounded amid gunfire as security forces pursued other attackers inside the building, police said. Two more blasts were heard, one when an attacker detonated a suicide vest.
Capt. Mohamed Hussein, speaking by telephone from the scene, said 30 people, including a government minister, were rescued from the NasaHablod hotel as heavy gunfire continued in the standoff between extremists and security forces. Three of the five attackers were killed, Hussein said. The others hurled grenades and cut off the building's electricity as night fell.
Saturday’s blasts came 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.
Al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack and said its fighters were inside the hotel.
Among the dead were a mother and three children, all shot in the head, Hussein said. Other victims included a senior Somali police colonel, a former lawmaker and a former government minister. Footage from the scene showed twisted vehicles and buildings with only walls left standing.
Mohamed Dek Haji said he survived as he walked beside a parked car that was largely destroyed by the explosion. He said he saw at least three armed men in military uniforms running toward the hotel after the bombing at its gate.
Witnesses in some previous attacks have said alShabab fighters disguised themselves in uniforms.
Security officials say Saturday’s bomber stopped outside the heavily fortified hotel and pretended to repair his truck before turning it around and detonating the bomb.
Al-Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu. It has not commented on the massive attack two weeks ago; experts have said the death toll was so high that the group hesitated to further anger Somali citizens as it pursues its insurgency.
Since the blast two weeks ago, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has visited regional countries to seek more support for the fight against the extremist group. He also faces the challenge of pulling together regional powers inside his longfractured country, where the federal government is only now trying to assert itself beyond Mogadishu and other major cities.
A 22,000-strong multinational African Union force is expected to hand over the country’s security to the Somali military by the end of 2020. U.S. military officials and others have expressed concern that Somali forces are not yet ready.
The U.S. military also has stepped up efforts against al-Shabab this year in Somalia, carrying out nearly 20 drone strikes as the global war on extremism moves deeper into Africa.