San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MILITANTS STORM HOTEL IN SOMALIA, AT LEAST 11 DEAD
Al-shabab group claims responsibility for the assault
Militants were battling security forces Saturday in a busy hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, after storming the property the day before in an attack that has left at least 11 people dead.
The assault came as the country undergoes a delicate political transition and grapples with severe drought and a growing humanitarian crisis. The militant group al-shabab claimed responsibility, according to Somali Memo, a news website affiliated with the group.
The militants stormed the property, the upscale Hayat Hotel, on Friday evening. Through Saturday afternoon, intermittent gunfire could be heard inside the building, which is frequented by local politicians and clan elders and is in a busy commercial area about a mile from the main international airport.
Police officers cordoned off the area Saturday morning, but dozens of people stood nearby waiting for news of loved ones who they feared were trapped inside the hotel. Videos and other images on social media showed plumes of smoke followed by gunfire coming from near the hotel and people fleeing, some with children, from nearby hotels, shops and restaurants Friday evening.
Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, director of the city’s only free ambulance service, said his team had removed five bodies and had taken 10 wounded people to hospitals.
Mohamed
Ibrahim
Moalimuu, a Somali lawmaker and former government spokesperson, said in a Facebook post Saturday that 11 members of his clan had been killed.
Somalia’s internal security challenges have been mounting as the country faces a record fourth consecutive failed rainy season, along with rising fuel and food prices stemming from the war in Ukraine. At least 7 million people out of a population of about 16 million have been affected by the severe drought as of July, with 918,000 of them displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Al-shabab has wreaked havoc in Somalia for years, pledging to establish an Islamic state across the Horn of Africa nation. The group has also carried out deadly attacks in other countries in East Africa, including killing American military contractors working at a Kenyan military base in January 2020.
Al-shabab has been growing richer and stronger over the past few years, collecting taxes from businesses, making investments in real estate, deciding legal cases and carrying out increasing numbers of attacks against both civilians and Somali and peacekeeping forces.
In July, the group crossed into Ethiopia and clashed with security forces there — a move, observers say, that showcased how they were capitalizing on the internal challenges and civil war in that country to widen their operational reach.
The storming of the hotel in Mogadishu was the first major attack in the capital since Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected president in May after a prolonged and tense election season that had been delayed for almost two years. Mohamud has vowed to confront al-shabab, promising to undermine the group militarily, ideologically and financially. But his government has been off to a slow start, with a new cabinet announced only this month.
Wendy’s pulls lettuce amid E. coli outbreak
The fast-food chain Wendy’s says it is pulling lettuce from sandwiches in its restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania after people eating them there reported falling ill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it is trying to determine whether romaine lettuce is the source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least 37 people and whether romaine used at Wendy’s was also served or sold at other businesses.
The CDC said one person was also sickened in Indiana. A message was left with Wendy’s about lettuce on sandwiches in that state.
The CDC said there is no evidence that romaine sold in grocery stores is linked to the E. coli outbreak. The agency also said it is not advising people to stop eating at Wendy’s or not to eat romaine lettuce.
Wendy’s says lettuce used in its salads is different and not affected by its decision to pull the lettuce from sandwiches. The company said it is cooperating with the CDC.
Bus crash at accident site leaves 15 dead
A passenger bus collided Saturday with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident in southern Turkey, leaving at least 15 people dead and nearly two dozen injured, officials said.
Three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted. The other eight fatalities were on the bus, he added.
Gaziantep Gov. Davut Gul said 22 other people were injured in the incident.
The Ilhas News Agency said two of its journalists were killed after pulling over to help the victims of the initial accident, in which a car came off the highway and slid down an embankment.
Television footage showed an ambulance with severe damage to its rear while the bus lay on its side alongside the highway.