Double car bombing strikes Mogadishu(Video)

28 October, 2017 | Filed under: All News,more news,Opinion,RECENT POSTS,Somali news | Posted by:
The armed group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the twin bombings [Feisal Omar/Reuters]
The armed group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the twin bombings [Feisal Omar/Reuters]

At least 10 people have been killed in a double car bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which is still reeling from a massive attack that left hundreds dead earlier this month.

A suicide car bomber first drove into a hotel where President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was due to host a meeting on Saturday, followed by a car bombing near a former parliament building.

Mohamed Ahmed, a tuk-tuk driver who was driving by the Nasa-Hablod hotel at the time of the attack, said he “saw a car exploding at the gate of the hotel. I don’t know where two of my clients have gone”.

He added, “I don’t know if they are dead or alive. But I saw four dead bodies.”

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow.

Our correspondent, reporting from Nairobi, Kenya, said at least three heavily armed al-Shabab gunmen gained entry into the Nasa-Hablod hotel in the wake of the car bombing, but have now been killed by Somali security forces.

“We can confirm that the president was not at the hotel at the time of the attack,” he said.

Farmajo was scheduled to meet the presidents of the Somalia‘s five federal republics at the hotel later in the evening, he said.

A car packed with explosives blew up outside the Nasa-Hablod hotel. [Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP]

“Rescue workers are saying the death toll could be much higher. They have recovered so many bodies from the hotel,” he said, quoting witnesses who reported seeing al-Shabab fighters throw grenades inside the hotel.

Several buildings near the hotel have also collapsed, trapping an unknown number of people beneath the rubble.

Al-Shabab “seems to have taken advantage of the fragility of the national security apparatus. No one expected them to carry out attacks just two weeks to the day they launched Somalia’s deadliest attack, in which more than 358 people were killed”, Adow added.
The Stream – Where does Somalia go from here?

According to an Al Jazeera tally, since the start of this year, more than 20 explosions have targeted Mogadishu, killing at least 500 people and injuring more than 630.

A roadside explosion hit a minibus carrying passengers, 36km south of Mogadishu, on October 22, killing at least 11 people.

The devastating attack of October 14 left at least 358 people dead and more than 400 injured.

The Somali government blamed the October 14 blast on al-Shabab, but no group has claimed responsibility.

Interactive Somalia attacks october 28 [Daylife]

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS