Al-Shabaab, a jihadist terrorist group based in East Africa, on Wednesday triggered a massive car explosion near a popular hotel in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia and followed it with gun fire, killing at least 13 people in the process and injuring around a dozen, Al Jazeera reported.
Read also: War on terror? The US dropped 3 bombs every hour in 2016, and these nations bore the brunt
A car packed with explosives rammed into Dayah Hotel in central Mogadishu and militants later opened fire trying to storm inside the building. There was an exchange of fire between them and security guards.
As ambulances were pressed to service and journalists started arriving on the scene, a second bomb went off, which injured four journalists.
Security forces, however, managed to secure the building following the gun attack. Major Mohamed Ahmed, a police officer, told Reuters that the casualty figures might rise.
Dayah Hotel is close to the country's parliament building and the hotel is popular with lawmakers, government officials and entrepreneurs. Several members of the parliament were said to be inside the hotel during the attack, the Associated Press reported.
The massive explosion has caused widespread damage and also destroyed neighbouring houses.
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack. Al-Shabaab wants to remove the current government and turn the country into a fundamentalist Islamic state. It dislikes the western support to the current government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Al-Shabaab has been linked with Al-Qaida and uses terror attacks to prove its point.
