At least 13 people were killed in Somalia’s Mogadishu on Wednesday after gunmen crashed a car packed with explosives into the gate of Dayah hotel, Reuters reported. The hotel is said to be popular with politicians and government officials.

Islamist group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on a Telegram messaging account. “The mujahideen fighters have attacked a hotel and have managed to enter the hotel after detonating a car loaded with explosives,” read the statement by Al Shabaab, according to AFP.

The attackers stormed the hotel after the car bomb exploded and exchanged fire with security guards. A second blast went off after ambulances had arrived at the scene, leaving several injured, reported AFP.

The police said that all civilians were rescued, though the death toll may rise. The injured were taken to Madina hospital, where some of them were said to have “very serious” wounds. Dozens of people including lawmakers were said to have been inside the hotel at the time of the attack, a police official told AP.

Al Shabaab frequently attacks hotels and government buildings in Somalia in protest against the country’s government, which is backed by Western countries. On January 2, an explosion near the security checkpoint at Mogadishu’s international airport left three dead. The blast had occurred near the main base of the African Union peacekeeping mission, reported AP. </s> Somalia's al Shabaab kill four in attack on hotel in Puntland region - official

BOSASSO, Somalia, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab militants stormed a hotel in the capital of the semi-autonomous Puntland region, Bosasso, on Wednesday, killing four guards, while two of the attackers also died, a senior official said.

"Three al Shabaab fighters stormed the International Village Hotel this morning. Four guards and two of the attackers died in the fighting," Yusuf Mohamed, the governor of Bari region, told Reuters.

"Fortunately, the attackers did not enter the rooms. The fighting took place inside the compound. A third fighter escaped and we are pursuing him. All the people in the hotel are safe." (Reporting by Abdiqabni Hassan; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Robert Birsel) </s> NAIROBI (Reuters) - Attackers blew up part of a hotel in northeastern Kenya, killing at least 12 people on Tuesday, in a raid claimed by al Shabaab militants from neighboring Somalia.

The group said it had set out to kill non-Muslims in Kenya’s Mandera area - the scene of numerous assaults by the fighters seeking to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government and punish Kenya for sending in soldiers to oppose it.

Rescuers pulled at least six survivors from the rubble and were searching for more, North Eastern Regional Commissioner Mohamoud Saleh said in a statement that did not name the attackers.

Twelve people died in the attack, he said. “The Government of Kenya condemns this act of terror and condoles with families and friends of the bereaved,” he added.

Al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operation, Abdiasis Abu Musab, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the gunmen had targeted non-Muslims and killed 15 people.

“I counted nine bodies being removed from the building by colleagues, those dead could be more. Most of them had what looked like gun shot wounds and for others it seems rubble from the building had collapsed on them,” said a police officer at the scene, who asked not to be named.

The attack took place hours after fighters from the group shot dead an intelligence officer in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. [nL8N1CV0VV]

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“We have received some six people with injuries from the scene of the attack. Some have really lost blood, two are unconscious. We also received bodies of the dead but I was in the casualty wing and could not count how many they were,” a nurse from Mandera County hospital told Reuters.

Al Shabaab killed six people as a work site in Mandera area earlier in October.[nL5N1CC0ED]

It has also struck deeper into Kenya, killing at least 67 people in an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in 2013. </s> Six people were killed in an attack in northeast Kenya on Thursday by suspected Islamist militants from the Somali group al Shabaab, the regional governor and Kenyan media reported, the latest strike in an area by the militants.

The governor of Mandera county where the attack took place, Ali Roba, told Reuters that six people had been confirmed killed.

Kenya’s Daily Nation said on its website that the attack, which it blamed on al Shabaab, occurred early in the morning. </s> Nairobi. Twelve people have been killed in an overnight attack at Bishaaro Hotel in Mandera Town by suspected Al-Shabaab gunmen, police confirmed on Tuesday.

Mandera East police boss (OCPD) Ezekiel Singoe said the 12 included 10 who were visiting for set-book performances at schools in the county.

He said the 10 had arrived in Mandera on Monday to stage plays for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam candidates.

The police boss said they were still identifying the bodies.

The attackers used improvised explosive devices to break the metallic doors at the lodge before shooting the 12 dead in their rooms.

Each room in the hotel accommodated four to six people.

Mandera County Police Commander Job Boronjo on Tuesday morning confirmed the attack but said police were yet to get more details about deaths or injuries as it was still dark in the area.

"We are monitoring the situation. My officers are on the ground. We will give the details when the day breaks," Mr Boronjo said from Garissa, where he was attending an official meeting.

Asked about the exact place of the attack, Mr Boronjo said by phone: "Lets not go into details for now please. Lets wait for update as the day breaks." </s> At least 28 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a coordinated gun-and-bomb attack carried out by al-Shabab at a popular hotel in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, according to officials.

The assault on Wednesday morning began when attackers rammed an explosives-packed car into the gate of Dayah Hotel, which is near Somalia's parliament in central Mogadishu, and then stormed inside exchanging gunfire with security guards.

A second massive car bomb blast went off after ambulances and journalists had arrived at the scene, leaving at least four reporters wounded, according to AFP news agency.

"We have confirmed 28 people died and 43 others were injured in the two blasts at the hotel," Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of the capital's ambulance services, told Reuters news agency.

Security Minister Abdirizak Umar told reporters at the scene that 51 people were wounded in the two blasts at the hotel.

Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi, reporting from Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya, said a freelance journalist working for Al Jazeera Arabic was among those wounded.

OPINION: US policies do more harm than good in Somalia

Colonel Abdiqadir Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters that security forces eventually managed to secure the building.

"We have rescued the people and concluded the operation at Dayah Hotel."

Witnesses said the powerful explosions caused extensive damage in the area near the hotel, shattering dozens of windows and damaging parked cars.

"All the neighbouring houses have been destroyed," Yusuf Hassan, editor of Somali newspaper Haqiqa Times, told Al Jazeera from the scene.

"I see people crying because they have lost their relatives," he added.

"It is really a big tragedy."

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a report by Andalus radio, which is linked to the armed group.

"Well-armed mujahideen [fighters] attacked the hotel and now they are fighting inside the hotel," the report said.

Dozens of people, including members of Somalia's parliament, were thought to have been in the hotel at the time of the attack, Captain Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press news agency.

The hotel is popular with politicians, government officials and entrepreneurs.

Al-Shabab has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Somalia to try to topple the country's western-backed government.

In June, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on the Nasa Hablod hotel, which killed at least 15 people. </s> Jan. 15 (UPI) -- An upscale hotel in Kenya was attacked with gunfire and explosions Tuesday in what authorities are calling a terrorist attack.

The attack targeted the DusitD2 hotel and office park in Nairobi's Westlands neighborhood. The Somali militant group al-Shabab told al-Jazeera it was behind the attack.

The casualty count was not initially reported.

One man at the hotel used Twitter to communicate with relatives.

"I am ... hiding in a bathroom and we are under attack," he wrote. "There was a massive bombs blast then gunshots. HELP SOS."

A Kenya Air Force helicopter responded to the attack, the Nation reported.

Smoke was seen from something burning outside the hotel. Police warned people to stay away from the area and nearby buildings were evacuated.

Al-Shabab has attacked Kenya before, including a strike at the Westgate Mall in 2013 that killed 71 people. </s> The Somalia-based al-Qaeda linked terror group al-Shabaab attacked the luxury hotel Dusit-D2 in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, killing at least 15.

Al-Shabaab is considered the deadliest terrorist organization in Africa and has conducted several spectacular terrorist attacks in Somalia and Kenya.

The attack on Tuesday came three years to the day after al-Shabaab extremists attacked a Kenyan military base in neighboring Somalia, killing scores of people.

Tuesday’s attack comes on the third anniversary, to the day, of an al-Shabaab ambush on the El-Adde camp in Somalia, killed 170 Kenyan soldiers.

In April 2015, al-Shabaab killed 147 students at the Garissa University College in Kenya. ( “3-Apr-15 World View — Al-Shabaab kills 147 mostly Christian students in Kenya school”)

Al-Shabaab also conducted the horrific three-day terror attack on Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall, killing 67 people. ( “23-Sep-13 World View — Minnesota link to Kenya shopping mall attack raises U.S. fears”)

The reason that the Westgate Mall attack lasted for three days is that the Nairobi police were ill-prepared to respond to it, and received a great deal of criticism as a result. The Dusit hotel is less than 2 km away from the Westgate mall. Tuesday’s attack on the Dusit hotel was handled more efficiently by Nairobi’s police, though it still lasted several hours.

CCTV footage has emerged showing that there were four assailants who carried out the attack. The hotel is in a supposedly very secure part of Nairobi, but the attackers gained access to the hotel by hurling grenades at the security officers manning the gate.

The Dusit hotel complex consists of a number of buildings and many were attacked. Police went from building to building and rescued hundreds of people who were trapped in hotel rooms or offices.

One of the CCTV images captured what appears to be a U.S. Navy SEAL rescuing civilians and then returning to the scene of the fighting. The Pentagon has U.S. special forces in a number of countries in Africa, describing their mission as “advising and assisting.” In Kenya, the U.S. has a small presence at Camp Simba, where they reportedly train naval special forces.

Al-Shabaab has vowed retribution against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia since 2011. The al-Qaeda-linked group has killed hundreds of people in Kenya, targeted more than any other of the six countries providing troops to an African Union force in Somalia. Kenyans and AP and The Star (Kenya) and Business Insider

Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based terror group that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. In 2014, they debated changing allegiance to ISIS but rejected the change, resulting in the formation of a small splinter group. The group conducts massive terror attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. It has an estimated 3,000-6,000 members, including members that it has successfully recruited from the Somali diaspora in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the case of the Westgate Mall attack, three terrorists were from the United States, including two from the Somali community in the twin cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) region of Minnesota.

Al-Shabaab’s predecessors have been around in Somalia since the 1980s. During the 2000s, they were responsible for numerous pirate attacks on vessels off the coast of eastern Africa. Since 2007, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), consisting of troops from Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone, have targeted the group. U.S. drone strikes and airstrikes have killed several of the group’s leaders.

Al-Shabaab’s targets are usually governmental, with the stated goal of ejecting Western influence and converting Somalia into an Islamic Sharia state.

The U.N. Security Council had ordered the withdrawal of AMISOM troops starting in October of last year, after which Somalia security forces were expected to begin taking over. However, the withdrawal was postponed until February of this year. However, a recent spate of successful attacks, despite the presence of AMISOM troops, has given credence to the view that Somalia security forces are too weak to take over, and the departure of AMISOM would result in the complete al-Shabaab takeover of Somalia. Jamestown (12-Oct-2018) and Council of Foreign Affairs (11-Dec-2018) and International Crisis Group (21-Sep-2018)
• New Somalia terror bombings again raise question of US military strategy in Africa (29-Oct-2017)
• US sends dozens of troops to Somalia, first time since Black Hawk Down (15-Apr-2017)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kenya, Nairobi, Somalia, al-Shabaab, Dusit-D2 hotel, Westgate Mall, El-Adde camp, Garissa University College, Westgate Mall, Minneapolis, African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone

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 Receive daily World View columns by e-mail </s> Death toll in Somalia hotel blast rises to 26, police say

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A Somali police official says the death toll in Wednesday's attack on a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, has risen to 26.

Capt. Mohamed Hussein says 52 others were injured in the assault that began with a suicide car bomb exploding at the hotel gate. He says some of the victims who suffered horrific wounds died in hospitals.

Islamic extremist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The homegrown extremist group is also announcing that it has killed three Somalis it says collaborated with the CIA and Kenyan and Somali governments.

Pro-al-Shabab websites say the three men were accused of helping in carrying out airstrikes against al-Shabab officials.

The sites say the men were killed in a public square in Yaqbarawe, a town in the southwest.
At least 12 are killed in an attack on a hotel in Kenya. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility.