“Saturday’s attack came just three weeks after another assault quickly claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group on the city’s Ambassador hotel left 10 dead including two lawmakers when a huge car bomb ripped the front off the six-storey building.”
Soon there will be no more hotels for the throngs of tourists in lovely Mogadishu.
“The Naasa Hablood hotel in southern Mogadishu is often used by politicians…” That’s why it was targeted.
“‘Massive explosion’, attack under way at Mogadishu hotel,” AFP, June 25, 2016 (thanks to Steve):
A huge blast followed by heavy gunfire rocked a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, a resident and AFP reporters said, the latest in a string of attacks targeting hotels and restaurants.
“There is heavy fire going on inside the hotel, it started after the massive explosion but we cannot know what is going on,” resident Abdihafid Mudey, who lives near the hotel, told AFP.
There were no immediate reports of casualties but several security sources confirmed to AFP that an attack was under way.
AFP journalists in Mogadishu said a powerful explosion was heard at around 16:30 pm (1330 GMT), followed by two other blasts.
The Naasa Hablood hotel in southern Mogadishu is often used by politicians and members of the Somali diaspora visiting the city.
Somali security forces cordoned off access to the neighbourhood in which the hotel is located, an AFP photographer said.
Saturday’s attack came just three weeks after another assault quickly claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group on the city’s Ambassador hotel left 10 dead including two lawmakers when a huge car bomb ripped the front off the six-storey building.
Shabaab gunmen besieged the Ambassador hotel for more than 12 hours….