Death toll from suicide car bomb in Somalia rises to 29 – police

A damaged building is seen at the scene where a suicide car bomb exploded targeting a Mogadishu hotel in a business center in Maka Al Mukaram street in Mogadishu, Somalia. February 28, 2019. [Reuters]

The death toll from an Al Shabaab suicide car bombing at a Mogadishu hotel rose to 29 with 80 wounded, police said on Friday, as a gun battle raged at the site of the blast between fighters of the militant group and Somali troops.

“So far we know 29 people mostly civilians died and 80 others injured. The militants are still fighting from inside a civilian house adjacent to the hotel... The death toll may rise,” police Major Musa Ali told Reuters.

The blast hit the Maka Al-Mukarama hotel on Thursday evening.

The afternoon explosion sent smoke billowing into the sky and destroyed two restaurants and some cars parked in the area.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have in the past targeted the same location - the Wehliye Hotel - which is along the busy Maka al Mukaram road.

On Saturday, 15 people died in two explosions and a gunfight between al Shabaab militants and security personnel in Mogadishu.

Al Shabaab, which is trying to topple Somalia’s western-backed central government, was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

But it remains a threat, with fighters frequently carrying out bombings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, whose troops form part of the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force that helps defend the central government.