At least 32 people were killed and 63 others injured in an attack claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabab group.
Somali police said Saturday that 32 people died and 63 others were injured in an attack on a beach hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, the previous evening.
Al-Qaeda’s East African affiliate, the Shabaab group, said via its radio that its fighters carried out the attack.
Police spokesman Major Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters that one soldier was killed in the attack and the others were civilians. Another soldier was also injured in the attack. Witnesses reported an explosion followed by gunfire.
Lido Beach, a popular area of Mogadishu, is bustling on Friday nights as Somalis enjoy their weekend.
A witness, Mohamud Moalim, told The Associated Press that he saw an attacker wearing an explosive vest moments before the man “don’t blow yourself up next to the hotel overlooking the beach.”
Some of his friends who were with him at the hotel were killed, others were injured.
Another witness, Abdisalam Adam, told the AP that he had “saw many people lying on the ground” and that he had helped transport wounded people to hospital.
In a separate attack on Saturday, state media reported that seven people were killed after a passenger vehicle hit a roadside bomb some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital.
The Al-Shabaab group still controls parts of southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out attacks in Mogadishu and other areas, while extorting millions of euros a year from residents and businesses in its quest to impose an Islamic state.
