Al-Shabaab terrorist group launches attacks in Mogadishu; details

At least 10 people were killed and many more injured, including children, after al-Shabaab attacked the Al-Hayat hotel near Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab announced last night that it had taken control of the hotel, and police said two car bombs were targeted before the gunmen entered, according to Somalia Renewal.

Local media reported that the head of Mogadishu’s intelligence service was injured in the hotel attack.

Police spokesperson Abdul Fattah Aden Hassan later told reporters: A suicide bomber blew himself up during the attack on the hotel with other gunmen, he said, adding that the attackers are “now being confronted by the police forces”.

Witnesses said a second explosion occurred outside the hotel a few minutes after the first blast, causing casualties among relief workers, security personnel and civilians who rushed to the scene after the first blast.

The area is currently cordoned off, and there is an exchange of fire between the security forces and the gunmen.

The attack was claimed by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, which said in a brief statement posted on a pro-al-Qaeda website that a group of al-Shabaab attackers stormed the Al-Hayat hotel in Mogadishu and opened fire inside.

The Al-Hayat hotel is a favorite frequented by members of parliament and other government officials.

This is the first attack of this scale by Al-Shabaab on the capital Mogadishu since the formation of the new Somali government, which has indicated that one of its priorities is to liberate the country from al-Shabaab fighters.

Meanwhile, a mother and her four children were killed and their father wounded when a mortar fell on their house in Mogadishu’s Hamar Hajab district.

Sources indicated that five shells fell on a popular area near the Somali police school, which caused a great damage to one family, and resulted in the injury of six others in the targeted area last night.