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Bomb Attack Rocks Somalia

Bomb Attack Rocks Somalia
Bomb Attack Rocks Somalia

At least 10 people were killed in a huge bomb explosion at a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, a day after Somali lawmaker Abdullahi Huseen Mohamud and two guards and a driver were shot dead by Al Shabab militants.

Witnesses said a lorry was used to attack the Jazeera hotel near the city's airport, BBC reported.

"A suicide car bomb exploded at the gate of Jazeera Hotel," said Major Nur Osoble, a police officer.

International diplomats often stay at the hotel, which has been targeted in the past. Ambulances began collecting the dead and wounded in what was possibly one of the worst scenes of destruction seen in Mogadishu in the past few years.

Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack on the hotel. It said it was responding to assaults on the group by an African Union force and the Somali government.

Earlier, the group said in a statement its militants had "killed a member of the parliament and his guards."

The attacks took place as US President Barack Obama claimed in a press conference in Nairobi on Saturday that international powers had been able to "decrease" Al Shabab's control within Somalia, but conceded that the militia could "still do damage."

 

Financialtribune.com