Blast Kills 13 in Popular Mogadishu Hotel
At least 13 people were killed and 25 were wounded in Somalia’s capital Sunday when a car bomb exploded outside a hotel that hosts the Chinese and Egyptian embassies.
Somali militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the blast that targeted the Hotel Jazeera near Mogadishu International Airport. The hotel is often used by members of parliament and journalists in addition to foreign diplomats.
Local media reported that most of those killed were civilians, including a local TV journalist. Officials have released no details about the victims.
A Somali intelligence agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA that a Toyota Dyna truck filled with explosives went off outside the hotel Sunday afternoon.
One side of the hotel collapsed, and witnesses said their might be people trapped under the rubble.
A pro-Shabab website said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and was done in retaliation for the recent killings of militant fighters in Somalia’s Bay and Bakool regions by Ethiopian troops.
Ethiopia is one of several East African nations who have troops in Somalia fighting al-Shabab. The group has lost most of the territory it once controlled but carries out periodic high-profile attacks.
In April, al-Shabab militants killed 148 people at Garissa University College in eastern Kenya.
