DHAKA: A suicide truck bomb exploded outside a popular hotel in Somalia’s capital on Saturday (October 28), killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 30, reports The Guardian. 

Two more blasts were heard, one when an attacker detonated a suicide vest and police said gunfire continued as security forces pursued the attackers inside the hotel.

Police said security forces had rescued 30 people, including a government minister, from Mogadishu’s Nasa-Hablod hotel as heavy gunfire continues inside. 

Saturday’s blasts came two weeks after more than 350 people were killed in a massive truck bombing on a busy Mogadishu street in the country’s worst-ever attack.

Al-Shabaab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, quickly claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack and said its fighters were inside the hotel. As night fell, sporadic gunfire could be heard as soldiers responded. 

A senior Somali police colonel and a former lawmaker were among the dead.

BDST: 1037 HRS, OCT 29, 2017
SI