15 people killed in Somalia after the explosion of a car bomb

15 people killed in Somalia after the explosion of a car bomb

A car bomb exploded Thursday near a hotel and restaurants in Mogadishu, killing at least 15 people in a bustling area of ​​the Somali capital targeted by Islamist militants, relief services said.

The afternoon explosion threw smoke into the sky and destroyed two restaurants and cars parked nearby.

A Reuters witness counted six bodies.

"Up to now, 15 people, including five women, have died, and seventeen others have been injured in the blast," Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Ambulance Amin, told Reuters.

Another witness at the scene said that she had seen 18 bodies.

"As a mother, it's shocking to me and I ask those behind the explosions to stop, we cry every day for corpses and it's very hard for us to talk about it", said the resident who did not want to be named, told Reuters.

The police had already declared eight dead.

"The explosion destroyed a restaurant and killed many people inside and outside the restaurant, and the death toll could rise," he told Reuters. police Mohamed Hussein.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants once targeted the same location, the Wehliye Hotel, located along the busy Maka al Mukaram Road.

On Saturday, 15 people died in two explosions and a shootout between Al Shabaab militants and members of the security forces in Mogadishu.

Al Shabaab, which is attempting to overthrow the central government of Somalia, backed by the West, was expelled from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven out of most of its other strongholds.

But this remains a threat, with fighters frequently bombing Somalia and neighboring Kenya, whose troops are part of the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force that helps defend the central government. (Additional report by Feisal Omar, Written by George Obulutsa, edited by Andrew Cawthorne and Hugh Lawson)

Source: star media