Mogadishu (AFP) - Twenty-eight people were
killed Wednesday when Al-Shabaab fighters attacked a popular Mogadishu hotel,
setting off two car bombs and opening fire on security guards, according to the
city's main ambulance service.
The attack, claimed by the Al-Qaeda-aligned
Shabaab insurgents, began when a car loaded with explosives rammed the gate of
the Dayah Hotel near the Somali parliament and state house.
Security sources said at least four gunmen
then entered the compound and exchanged fire with security guards, but they
were shot dead before reaching the main building where guests were staying.
They were not counted among the 28 dead.A second massive blast went off after
ambulances and journalists had already rushed to the scene, leaving seven
reporters with minor injuries, according to the National Union of Somali
Journalists (NUSOJ).
They included an AFP photographer who
suffered shrapnel wounds to his shoulder and leg, an Associated Press
photographer and a reporter working with Al-Jazeera television."The number of casualties we have
recorded today is 28 dead and 43 wounded. This is what we have confirmed with
our teams but there were also other ambulances which carried some casualties
(but) I don't know how many," said Dr Abukadir Abdirahman Adem, head of
the ambulance service.
Somalia's Security Minister Abdirisak Omar
Mohamed told reporters there were 10 people killed and 51 wounded in the
attack. "We commend the security guards of the
hotel who fiercely fought the Shabaab attackers to defend the hotel," he
said. AFP images showed security forces and
civilians milling about outside the devastated hotel its windows and doors
blown out after the first explosion, when a second car exploded with a
massive blast, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air and sending people
fleeing.
Gunfire rang out from the hotel as civilians
and rescue workers carried away the injured.The Shabaab group claimed responsibility in a
statement distributed on its Telegram messaging account.
"The mujahideen fighters have attacked a
hotel and have managed to enter the hotel after detonating a car loaded with
explosives," it said.The Shabaab is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed
government of Somalia and regularly stages deadly attacks on state, military
and civilian targets in the capital and elsewhere in the war-torn country.
- Election date set -
The attack the deadliest so far in Somalia
in 2017 came shortly before the country's election commission announced that
a long-awaited presidential vote would take place on February 8.The date has been pushed back numerous times
amid delays in a vote for lawmakers, who were finally sworn in in late
December.
Somalia has not had an effective central
government since the 1991 overthrow of president Siad Barre's military regime,
which ushered in more than two decades of anarchy and conflict in a country
deeply divided along clan lines.
The clan rivalries and lawlessness provided
fertile ground for the Shabaab to take hold and seize territory, frustrating
efforts to set up a central administration.After a series of transitional governments
were formed abroad, a previous parliament was chosen by 135 clan elders and set
up in Mogadishu in 2012.
Somalis were promised a one-person, one-vote
election in 2016.But political infighting and ongoing
insecurity due to the presence of Shabaab meant Somalis were handed a
"limited" election, in which 14,025 specially picked delegates voted
for 275 parliamentary seats distributed according to clan. Another 72 seats in a new upper house were
shared out according to region.The 2016 process is seen as taking the country a
step closer to a universal suffrage election now planned for 2020.
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