Al-Shabaab terrorist group planted two car bombs at a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu today amid reports that militants have taken control of a hotel frequented by officials.
Police said the militants took control of the capital’s hotel after they blew up one of the checkpoints next to it and its main gate with two car bombs under heavy fire, without disclosing further details of the clashes.
Director and founder of Amin Ambulance Service Abdul Qadeer Abdul Rahman said ambulance crews had removed nine injured from the hotel so far at the time Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Police officers are conducting an operation aimed at stopping the attack,” the Somali National News Agency quoted a police spokesman, adding that many people were rescued by a special police unit where security forces are responding to the incident.
For their part, relief officials claimed 3 people had been killed, and witnesses at an intersection called KM4 reported that two people had been injured.
In turn, local media reported that the Mogadishu intelligence chief was wounded in the attack on the hotel.
