Al-Shabab claims Mogadishu hotel bombing
Iran Press TV
Thu Jan 2, 2014 1:48PM GMT
Somalia's al-Shabab militant group has claimed responsibility for a twin bombing of a hotel in Mogadishu that killed 11 people and left 17 others injured.
The attacks were carried out late on Wednesday near Jazeera Hotel, which is located in a heavily fortified district and is popular with Somali politicians and visiting foreign officials.
Al-Shabab 'takes full responsibility for last night's attack that targeted a meeting of senior apostate intelligence officials in Mogadishu,' Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for the al-Qaeda-linked militants, said on Thursday.
Rage described the attack as the start of a campaign for the new year against government forces and the foreign troops supporting them.
'The fate of foreigners and local mercenaries will remain the same until they leave the country... they will have no safe haven in Somalia,' he vowed.
Al-Shabab once controlled large swathes of southern and central Somalia but withdrew from fixed positions in Mogadishu two years ago.
The al-Qaeda-linked militants have also been driven out of Somalia's major towns by a UN-mandated African force known as AMISOM, which is made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
But the African country remains plagued by al-Shabab-fueled militancy. The group is said to have carried out an average of one 'complex attack' against foreign and government targets every six or eight weeks over the past year.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has recently warned about the deteriorating security situation in Somalia, saying the African country may slide back into being a failed state.
MRS/AB
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