A
suicide car bomber detonated near a hotel in Somalia’s capital Monday
morning, killing at least six people and injuring four others, police
said.
The
bomber detonated near the Weheliye hotel on the busy Maka Almukarramah
road, Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
The
al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed
responsibility for the blast, according to the group’s Andalus radio.
The group has often targeted hotels in Mogadishu, including a hotel
attack in late January that killed at least 26 people.
In
a separate blast Monday morning, a suicide bomber detonated a minibus
laden with explosives at the gate of a military camp south of the
capital. The bomber was killed and two people were wounded, said Col.
Yusuf Burhan, a Somali military officer.
Somalia’s new Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire condemned the two attacks, saying they were carried out by “bloodthirsty groups.”
Despite
being ousted from most of its key strongholds in south and central
Somalia, al-Shabab continues to carry out deadly guerrilla attacks
across the country. In the past couple of years it has started to target
checkpoints and bases of both the Somali military and the multinational
African Union force.
Al-Shabab
poses a major challenge to Somalia’s new President Mohamed Abdullahi
Mohamed, who has vowed to make security a priority in this Horn of
Africa country as the fragile central government seeks to expand its
control outside key areas like the capital.
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