Somalia's deputy prime minister hurt in deadly suicide bombing
Police say at least11 people have been
killed and Somalia’s deputy prime
minister injured in a suicide bomb attack
on a hotel near the presidential palacel.
One attacker rammed an explosives-laden
vehicle into the gate of the hotel in the
capital, Mogadishu, and another suicide
bomber then entered the hotel and blew
himself up, Capt Muhammad Hussein told
Associated Press.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the
attack, according to the group’s radio
station, Andulus.
“The building was badly hit, the explosion
was very big, and I saw the bodies of 11
people carried away,” police officer
Abulrahman Ali told Agence France-
Presse. “There were very many wounded
people too, many of them seriously.”
An official at the palace said at least 25
people had been killed and that the toll
was expected to rise due to the severity of
injuries among the wounded.
AP said two bloodied bodies were lying
outside the hotel in central Mogadishu, as
soldiers cordoned off the area and fired
bullets into the air to disperse
approaching crowds.
The deputy prime minister, Mohamed
Omar Arte, was rushed to hospital and was
among several other high-ranking
government officials at the hotel at the
time of the attack, Hussein said.
“They don’t care about life, humans and
Muslims,” said an elderly woman sobbing
beside the dead body of a man outside the
hotel.
This is the second attack on a hotel in
Mogadishu in less than a month. Last
month, three Somali nationals were killed
when a suicide car bomber blew himself
up at the gate of a hotel housing the
advance party of the Turkish president,
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who visited the
country days later.
Despite major setbacks in 2014, al-Shabaab
continues to wage a deadly insurgency
against Somalia’s government and remains
a threat in Somalia and the east African
region.
