At least two people were killed in an attack on Sahafi Hotel in Somali’s capital Mogadishu this morning.
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A second explosion came from a vehicle bomb outside the hotel, said witnesses. Twelve people were reported dead, Xinhua news agency reported citing police.
There was no speedy declare of duty after the explosions, however police blamed the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which has ceaselessly launched assaults in Mogadishu.
Another police officer Ahmed Ali said a few politicians and MPs were inside the hotel when the attack took place.
The explosion was reportedly followed by a gunfight and another blast.
I fell on the ground and saw part of my body bleeding, I was with another journalist who was killed in the attack, ” said Feisal Omar, who has since been discharged from the Mogadishu hospital.
But the African Union mission in Somalia, AMISOM, a 22,000-strong force fighting the Shebaab, said they fought alongside government troops and had secured the hotel.
The hotel is in a busy area of the capital known as K-4, and plumes of smoke could be seen above the city. In 2009, it was the site of the kidnapping of two French security agents, one of whom later escaped while the other was killed by the Shabab during a failed rescue attempt in 2013.
Security forces fought the Islamist al Shabaab gunmen for hours afterwards, police and witnesses said. Fighters from the al-Qaeda linked group infiltrated the hotel after the blast, said the statement.
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In April, al Shabaab fighters attacked Garissa University College in eastern Kenya, near the Somali border, killing 148 people and 79 injured.
