Mogadishu: Somalia’s Shabaab insurgents killed at least six people yesterday when they detonated a huge car bomb at a heavily guarded hotel in the capital Mogadishu housing diplomatic missions, officials and witnesses said.
The suicide attack, the latest in a string of bomb blasts and killings in Somalia, came as US President Barack Obama left neighbouring Kenya and headed to Ethiopia, both key nations contributing troops to the African Union force battling the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group.
In a statement quoted by jihadist websites, the Shabaab said they attacked the Jazeera Palace hotel, which is also home to the diplomatic missions of China, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and is popular among Somali government officials and foreign visitors.
“We have seen around six people killed, most of them hotel security guards,” said government security officer Mohamed Jama, adding that the toll might rise.
The Shabaab said the suicide bomber had attacked the hotel “in retaliation for the killing of dozens of innocent civilians” they claimed had died during attacks this week by Ethiopian forces against Shabaab bases in southern Somalia.
Local resident Abdihakim Ainte, a political analyst, was nearby when the bomb exploded and described a “huge blast” that smashed his window.
He said the hotel had been “torn apart” by the blast, and photographs shared on social media showed the side of the six-storey hotel destroyed by the explosion. The enormous blast also sent a thick plume of smoke high into the air. Journalist Mohamed Abdikarim, who worked for Universal TV, was among those killed, the National Union of Somali Journalists said in a message of condolence to his family.
The Jazeera is close to the fortified international airport, which houses the United Nations, Western diplomatic missions and AMISOM.
The hotel has been the target of Shabaab attacks in the past, including in 2012 when suicide bombers stormed the hotel while President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was inside.
Mohamud yesterday condemned the “heinous terrorist attack” and said the Shabaab attacked a civilian target because they were losing territory to government and AU troops.
The AU force in Somalia (AMISOM), which helped to evacuate the wounded and rescue those who had been staying in the hotel, said it “demonstrates the demonic agenda” of the Shabaab.
The Shabaab are fighting to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government which is propped up and protected by the 22,000-strong AMISOM force.
On Saturday, Shabaab gunmen in Mogadishu killed MP Abdulahi Hussein Mohamud, spraying his vehicle with gunfire as he travelled through a southern district of the city, killing him, his two guards and the driver.
AFP
