Al-Qaeda’s East Africa affiliate, al-Shabaab, said through its radio that its fighters carried out the attack.
ADVERTISEMENTAt least 32 people have been killed and 63 others injured in an attack on a hotel on Lido Beach in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu.
Security forces rushed to the scene on Friday night following reports of an explosion and gunfire.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants, al-Shabaab, were heard claiming responsibility for the attack through their radio system.
Its reported one of their fighters died after detonating a suicide bomb.
The state-owned Somali National News Agency said security forces had “neutralised the attackers”, while police spokesperson Major Abdifatah said one soldier was killed and the rest were civilians.
A witness, Mohamud Moalim, said he saw an attacker wearing an explosive vest moments before the man “blew himself up next to the beach-view hotel.”
He added that said some of his friends who were with him at the hotel were killed and others were wounded.
Militant attacks are frequent
The Lido Beach area has in the past been targeted by militants allied to al-Shabaab. The most recent attack last year resulted in nine people being killed.
In a separate attack on Saturday, state media reported that seven people died after a passenger vehicle hit a roadside bomb some 40 kilometres from the capital.
Al-Shabaab still controls parts of southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out attacks in Mogadishu and other areas while extorting millions of dollars a year from residents and businesses in its quest to impose an Islamic state.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud last year declared a «total war» on the militants as the country starts taking charge of its own security.
The hotel attack also comes a month after Somalia started the third phase of the drawdown of peacekeeping troops under the the African Union Transition Mission.
