Bombs target Somali hotel; deaths at 20
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Four car bombs set off by Islamic extremists exploded Friday outside a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 20 people and injuring 17, police said.
After the three explosions in front of the hotel, a fourth blast hit as medics attempted to rescue the injured.
The suicide bombs detonated near the perimeter wall of the Sahafi Hotel, which is across the street from a police station, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
Some of the victims were burned beyond recognition when one car bomb exploded next to a minibus, he said.
Somali security forces shot dead four gunmen who tried to storm through a hole blown in the hotel’s wall but did not succeed in entering, he said.
Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the bombs, according to the group’s Adalus radio station.
Among the dead was the manager of the Sahafi Hotel, whose father was the owner of the hotel before he was killed in an al-Shabab attack on the establishment in 2015, Hussein said.