A series of car bombings killed at least 18 people and injured 45 in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Friday, Police Capt .Daahir Kulane said.
Two car bombs were detonated between the Sahafi Hotel and another one detonated behind the hotel, police told CNN.
Colonel Qasim Ahmed Roble, Somali police spokesman, told reporters five attackers attempted to storm the hotel but were shot and killed by police.
Fifty-two Somali officials were rescued from the Sahafi Hotel and the Hayat Hotel, he said.
Abdiaziz Ibrahim, a former spokesperson for the Internal Security Ministry, who was at the scene, told CNN the attacks lasted 20 minutes and happened “one after the other.”
One of the victims was the owner of the hotel, Ibrahim said.
“Those who carried out the attack were dressed in police uniform, but they were Al Shabab attackers,” he said.
Al-Shabaab is a Somali group that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in March 2008. It wants to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The United National Assistance Mission in Somalia condemned the attack and said Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility.
“Such reprehensible acts of terrorism will not in any way undermine the determination of the Somali people to pursue their state-building, economic recovery and security priorities,” said the UN Secretary-General’s deputy special representative for Somalia, Raisedon Zenenga, in a statement.
