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Shabaab Bombings in Somalia’s Mogadishu Leave at Least 14 Dead | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) soldiers patrol following a car bomb in the Wardhigley District south of Mogadishu on February 27, 2015. The bomb killed one person and injured another. AFP PHOTO/Mohamed Abdiwahab (Photo credit should read Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images)


At least 14 people were killed on Monday in two separate bombings in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The first was a car bombing near a hotel on a busy street in the capital. At least 13 people were killed, police and the emergency medical services said, hours after a man was killed by a blast as he tried to ram through a checkpoint.

Police said the blast damaged a house on Maka al-Mukaram Street but did not destroy its target, the Wehliye Hotel.

“We have carried 13 dead people and 14 others are injured. The death toll may rise further,” Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of aid-funded Aamin Ambulance services, told Reuters.

A spokesman for Somali’s al-Qaeda-aligned al-Shabaab militant group claimed the attack.

“We were behind the Maka al-Mukaram street blast. We killed 17 people, including senior officials of military and security and former lawmakers,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, told Reuters by phone.

The group, which is fighting to overthrow the government, said the hotel was hosting “officials and apostates”.

Earlier on Monday, police shot at a minibus, also in Mogadishu, when the driver refused to stop as it approached a checkpoint. The minibus exploded, wounding two bystanders and killing the driver, police officer Nur Osman told Reuters.

“A policeman at a checkpoint shot at the speeding minibus. It exploded and killed the al-Shabaab fighter that drove it,” he said.

Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire condemned the Monday morning attacks.

“We are very much devastated with the explosions aimed to harm the population, I promise that we will deal with those bloodthirsty elements with an iron fist,” he said.

In recent years, al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab has lost most of its territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the UN-backed Somali government.

But the insurgents frequently launch deadly gun, grenade and bomb attacks in Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government. Many attacks are aimed at military bases but some also target civilians.

“There is a trend of increasingly targeting hotels since 2015,” Greg Robin, an IED expert at Nairobi-based think tank Sahan Research. “This is where government operatives stay or have meals or meetings. They are specifically targeted.”

The insurgents were also increasing their use of large truck bombs, he said. Only one such attack happened in 2015, but there were six in 2016 and two so far this year.