Bombs kill at least 25 people near hotel in Somali capital Mogadishu

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Two car bombs killed At least 25 people were killed and 30 others injured in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Saturday, police said, two weeks after a huge truck bomb killed hundreds of civilians in the city.

Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saturday. A suicide car bomb was rammed into a hotel, Nasahablod Two, about 600 metres from the presidential palace, and then armed militants stormed the building, police said.

A few minutes later, a car bomb exploded near the former parliament house nearby.

Earlier, Ali Nur, a police officer, told Reuters that mostly policemen had died in the blasts.

“Security forces have entered a small portion of the hotel building ... the exchange of gunfire is hellish,” he said.

The police personnel who died had been stationed close to hotel’s gate. The dead also included a former lawmaker, he said.

Fighting continued to rage inside the hotel after the blast and police said the death toll was likely to rise.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, told Reuters the emergency service had earlier carried 17 people injured from the hotel bombing.

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UN condemns bombing in Somalia; death toll rises to 230

The United Nations' senior envoy in Somalia has condemned Saturday's bombing that claimed over 230 lives in Mogadishu and offered the world body's support.

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Somalia, Michael Keating, on Sunday said the immediate priority is to support efforts led by the authorities to recover from the attack and help all those affected, especially the injured and newly homeless, Xinhua reported.
"The international community will do everything possible to help the people and government of Somalia to overcome this tragedy," Keating said in a statement.

The statement came as the death toll following Saturday's explosion at a busy street of Mogadishu surpassed 230 while 288 others were injured.

Keating said the UN and the African Union Mission in Somalia are working closely to support the response by the Somali government and local government authorities in Mogadishu, including the provision of logistical support, medical supplies and expertise.

"Our deepest condolences go to the families and friends of the dead, and our thoughts are with the injured and all those affected," Keating said.
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Mogadishu truck bombings are deadliest attack in decades

When a double truck bombing shattered the night in Mogadishu on Saturday, rescue workers began the grim search for survivors that has become all too common as Somalia battles an Islamist insurgency. They picked through burned-out cars and hunted as best they could in a collapsed hotel.

But it was only on Sunday, as emergency workers pulled body after body from the rubble of a nearly leveled downtown street, that the magnitude of the latest attack came into focus. The numbers of dead surged from 20 on Saturday night to more than 270 and counting, according to government officials. More than 300 people were injured.

“This is the deadliest incident I ever remember” since the 1990s, when the government collapsed, a shaken Senator Abshir Ahmed said in a Facebook posting.

The attack came as the United States under President Trump has made a renewed push to defeat the Shabab, Somali-based militants who have terrorized the country and East Africa for years, killing civilians across borders, worsening famine and destabilizing a broad stretch of the region. While no one had yet claimed responsibility for the bombings, suspicion immediately fell on the group, which frequently targets the capital, Mogadishu.
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