The explosion injured 14 other people and destroyed the hotel and neighboring buildings in the town of Johar, which is about 90 kilometers from the capital Mogadishu.
Five people were killed today when a car bomb exploded near a hotel in central Somalia.
The Islamist group Shebab claimed responsibility for the attack, according to police and eyewitnesses.
The explosion injured 14 other people and destroyed the hotel and neighboring buildings in the town of Johar, which is about 90 kilometers from the capital Mogadishu.
According to the police, the attackers crashed the car, which was rigged with explosives, into the outer wall of the Nur-doob Hotel, which is often chosen for the accommodation of many politicians. “They killed five civilians, including women working in the hotel and security guards,” said a police officer, Muhammad Ali. “Another 14 people were injured, some of them were in buildings that are not even close to the hotel,” he added.
Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that has been trying to topple the Somali government for more than 10 years, claimed responsibility in a statement posted on an Islamist propaganda website. Islamist rebels were driven out of Mogadishu and other cities in 2011 thanks to the intervention of an African Union force, but they retain control of large swaths of the countryside.
New Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, who took office in June after parliamentary elections, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and pledged that the government would help the injured.
Muhammad Ali said this explosion was “the strongest he has ever seen in Johar”.
Mahad Ibrahim, a resident of the town, said he saw debris and clouds of smoke and ash. “I saw bodies under the debris of the side of the hotel that collapsed,” he added, explaining that the shock wave had ripped off the roof of his house.
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