Almost 20 people were killed in an attack claimed by Al Shabab on a popular beachside restaurant in Somalia, police said on Friday, as neighbouring Kenya mourned soldiers killed by the Al Qaeda-linked group last week.
Advertisement
A vehicle rigged with explosives rammed into the Beach View Hotel on Lido Beach in the capital of Mogadishu, Al Jazeera reported.
He said the people of the U.S. are with Kenyans in mourning Kenya Defence Force (KDF) soldiers who paid the ultimate price while restoring peace in war-torn Somalia.
There are reports a second eatery, the Liido Seafood restaurant, was also attacked. Hussein, the police official, said the security forces rescued many people who had been trapped inside the restaurant’s hall, where a party was taking place when the attack started on Thursday.
The United Nations Security Council condemned in the strongest terms today’s attack in Mogadishu perpetrated by Al-Shabaab, “which has resulted in a number of deaths and injuries of innocent civilians going about their daily lives”. Four other bodies of fallen soldiers and 15 survivors were brought to the capital last Sunday.
Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, in a broadcast on its online radio late Thursday.
Somali security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed said the suspected leader of the attack has been arrested.
Advertisement
Witnesses said that gunmen shouted “Allahu akbar”, the Arabic phrase for “God is great”, and entered the restaurant from the direction of the beach as clients, sitting behind razor wire, watched the seashore. “There was confusion, everybody started panicking, and some of them ran towards the gunmen and they were shot dead, I was lucky to escape”, he said. “There is a big mess here and many people died, I saw the dead bodies of 19 people who were killed during the attack”, said Hussein Ali, who saw the bodies being carried out of the damaged building.
