Suicide bombings at Somalia hotel kill, wound many

One person rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of a hotel in Somalia’s capital, and another went through the gates and blew himself up, killing at least 25 people on Friday, including the deputy mayor and a legislator, officials said.

The country’s deputy prime minister was also among those wounded by the bombings at the Central Hotel near the presidential palace, police official Captain Mohammed Hussein said.

Al-Shabab, an Islamic insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group’s radio station, Andulus.

Somali legislator Omar Ali Nor and Mogadishu’s deputy mayor Mohamed Aden are among the dead, said lawmaker Mohamed Ali.

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.

Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte was rushed to a hospital, and was among several other high-ranking government officials at the hotel at the time of the attack, Hussein said.

Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack on the hotel, saying it would not derail efforts by his government to restore peace to Somalia which is recovering from decades of war.

“We shall continue the anti-terrorism war, this attack makes clear that terrorists don’t have any respect for the peaceful religion of Islam by killing innocent Muslims.” he said in a statement issued after the attack.

This is the second attack on a hotel in Mogadishu in less than a month. On January 22, 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 Erdogan who visited the country days later.

Al-Shabab controlled much of Mogadishu during the years 2007 to 2011, but was pushed out of Somalia’s capital and other major cities by African Union forces.

UN envoy to Somalia Nick Kay condemned the “brutal terrorist attack” on the hotel.

“My heart goes out to those who have suffered. We stand firm with the Somalia people,” he said in a statement.

Britain’s ambassador to Somalia Neil Wigan also condemned the attack but said it “will not derail Somalia’s determination to defeat al-Shabab’s terrorism”.

Somalia is due to vote on a new constitution ahead of elections in 2016, but security remains a major problem.

Despite major setbacks for the group, al-Shabab continues to wage a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s government and remains a threat in Somalia and the East African region. The group has carried out many attacks in Somalia and in neighboring countries, including Kenya, whose armies are part of the African Union troops bolstering Somalia’s weak UN-backed government.