A map of the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia on the east coast of the continent. The state has undergone tremendous upheaval over the last three decades or more., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
November 8, 2013
Deadly Blast Hits Hotel in Somalia
By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM
New York Times
MOGADISHU, Somalia — A car loaded with explosives blew up outside one of Mogadishu’s most expensive hotels Friday evening, leaving what witnesses and officials described as a scene of devastation, burning vehicles and mangled victims. News services said that four to 11 people were killed and scores wounded in the blast, which appeared to be carried out by the Shabab, the militant Islamist insurgent group battling Somalia’s government.
Some witnesses reported that the car bomb had been preceded by an explosion inside the lobby of the hotel, the Maka Al-Mukarama, which is popular with government officials and business executives, and that the wounded included a member of Parliament and a Somali journalist. There were unconfirmed reports that the hotel had been playing host to a number of high-level visitors at the time.
“I can only tell you that the scene was horrific,” said Abdiasis Diiriye, a witness who was close the hotel when the explosion thundered across the city.
Mogadishu, the capital, has frequently been the target of bombings by the Shabab, who once controlled large sections of the country but have been beaten back in recent years by Somali troops and African Union forces. Shabab members have increasingly resorted to spectacular suicide attacks, including a deadly siege of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September, which the group called a retaliation for Kenya’s military operations in Somalia.
The Mogadishu police declined to specify a casualty toll in the hotel bombing. The Somali prime minister, Abdi Farah Shirdon, called it a terrorist attack.
“These cowardly acts of terrorism will not derail the progress made in Mogadishu and across Somalia,” the prime minister said in a statement. “We – the Somali people and the Somali government — will stand shoulder to shoulder to defeat these killers.”
The attack came against a backdrop of rising concern in the African Union about the destructive potency of the Shabab in the aftermath of the Nairobi attack. The African Union Mission in Somalia, which operates under the auspices of the United Nations, asked the Security Council last month for permission to strengthen the total number of soldiers in that force to 22,000, compared with 18,000 currently.
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