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People in suicide bombings in Mogadishu, Nov. 9, 2018. (Abdirazak Hussein Farah / AFP / Getty Images)
NAIROBI – A series of car bombs killed at least 20 people Friday in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, claimed by the al-Shabab extremist group.
At least three bombs exploded outside the headquarters of Somalia's Criminal Investigations Department, and a gun battle ensued when four militants tried to succumb to the hotel. The Associated Press reported that a fourth bomb went off.
Somali officials said police officers and hotel security guards shot and killed four militants as they tried to burst through a hole that one of the blasts opened in a wall of the Sahafi Hotel, which is frequented by government officials the attacks. At least two other activists were reported when they detonated their suicide car bombs.
Sahafi Hotel is adjacent to the Hayat Hotel and has a busy street in Mogadishu. The second car detonated on the street between the Criminal Investigations Department and the Sahafi Hotel, while a third bomb exploded on the other side of the hotel.
The bombs went off just minutes after 4 p.m when the streets were packed with pedestrians and traffic. Cars, minibuses and motorcycles were incinerated by the blasts. At least 17 people were reported injured in the explosions.
A spokesman for al-Shabab, an Islamist group linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, said it was targeted because "it acts as a government-based," the Reuters news agency reported. "Government officials and security forces are always in the hotel," said the spokesman, Abdiasisi Abu Musab.
Somali security officers evacuate an unidentified injured man from the scene of an explosion in Mogadishu, Somalia, Nov. 9, 2018. (Feisal Omar / Reuters)
Abdifah Abdirashid, the manager of the Hotel Sahafi, reported news agencies. He took over the hotel after being killed in an al-Shabab attack on the building in 2015.
Al-Shabab continues to control large parts of southern and central Somalia. Mogadishu and other cities and towns, including places in neighboring Kenya.
Last month, Somalia marked the anniversary of one of al-Shabab's deadliest attacks, a 2017 truck bombing in Mogadishu in that killed more than 500 people.
Supporting Somalia's federal government in its fight against al-Shabab is a regional peacekeeping force known to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).
The UN-backed mission, with contributing troops from Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Burundi, is credited with creating an environment for the Somali government to strengthen its national armed forces. Shabab.
Last year, the mission announced that it would reduce its troops in Somalia, a process that would continue until 2020. However, .
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