{"id":26366,"date":"2016-06-26T00:47:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/al-shabab-launches-deadly-somalia-hotel-attack\/"},"modified":"2016-06-26T00:47:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T00:47:02","slug":"al-shabab-launches-deadly-somalia-hotel-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/al-shabab-launches-deadly-somalia-hotel-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Shabab launches deadly Somalia hotel attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

{At least 15 people killed and another 20 wounded in coordinated assault on “Nasa Hablod hote” in the capital Mogadishu.}<\/p>\n

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of a hotel in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, which was followed by a second explosion with attackers fighting their way inside the building.<\/p>\n

Armed group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack on the Nasa Hablod hotel in a statement distributed through social networks online.<\/p>\n

“At least 15 people have been killed and 20 more wounded in the attack,” journalist Abdirizak Tuuryare told Al Jazeera quoting police sources.<\/p>\n

Burci Mohamed Hamza, minister of state for environment, was at the hotel during the attack.<\/p>\n

“There are conflicting reports about Burci Mohamed Hamza,” Tuuryare said. “Some say he has been rescued from the hotel, while others say he is dead.”<\/p>\n

Police captain Ali Ahmed said security forces were battling the attackers who took positions inside the hotel near Mogadishu’s busy KM-4 junction.<\/p>\n

A security official, who asked not to be named, told the DPA news agency that the attack was believed to had been carried out by three to four people.<\/p>\n

A witness to the attack, Ali Mohamud, said the attackers randomly shot at guests at the hotel.<\/p>\n

“They were shooting at everyone they could see. I escaped through the back door,” he said.<\/p>\n

Captain Mohamed Hussein said some attackers had moved to the second floor and were using machine guns to resist security forces. Hussein said security forces killed two of the attackers.<\/p>\n

He also told the AP news agency that he saw four bodies, thought to be civilians, lying outside the hotel.<\/p>\n

Yusuf Ali, an ambulance driver, said he had evacuated 11 people injured in the attack to hospitals.<\/p>\n

“Most of them were wounded in crossfire,” he said.<\/p>\n

Muslims in Somalia and around the world are observing Ramadan. In previous years, al-Shabab has often intensified attacks during the fasting month, often picking targets where people gather just before or after breaking the fast. <\/p>\n

At least 16 people were killed and 55 more wounded in a car bomb and gun attack on Hotal Ambassador in the centre of Mogadishu on June 1, in an attack claimed by al-Shabab.<\/p>\n

In February, at least nine people were killed when al-Shabab fighters set off a car bomb at the gate of a popular park near a hotel in the capital.<\/p>\n

In January, another attack on a beach-front restaurant killed at least 17 people.<\/p>\n

Loss of strongholds<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping force (AMISOM) in 2011.<\/p>\n

Last year, it was turfed out from strongholds elsewhere in the south by AMISOM and the Somali National Army.<\/p>\n

However, it has continued launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the government.<\/p>\n

The group has also been behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda. <\/p>\n

\"Al<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{At least 15 people killed and another 20 wounded in coordinated assault on “Nasa Hablod hote” in the capital Mogadishu.} A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of a hotel in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, which was followed by a second explosion with attackers fighting their way inside the building. Armed group al-Shabab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26366"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26366"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}