...
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...suicide boom-mobileings at a Mogadishu hotels rose to 25 with 80 maimed, police said on Friday, as a shootout raged at the site of the blast between fighters of the hard boy group and Somali troops.
"So far we know 25 people mostly civilians died and 80 others injured. The murderous Moslems are still fighting from inside a civilian house adjacent to the hotel... The corpse count may rise," police Major Musa Ali said.
The blast hit the Maka al-Mukarama hotel on Thursday evening.
Al-Shabaab grabbed credit for the deadly boom-mobiles in the capital.
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Al-Shabaab fighters set off two bombs outside the Hotel Maka al-Mukarama before retreating to an adjacent building, from where they fired on soldiers who tried to enter. At least two soldiers were carried away from the hotel on Friday morning.
The attack - the latest in a series of high-profile assaults in East Africa by al-Shabaab - came after U.S. forces in Somalia stepped up air strikes against the Islamist group.
| This seems to be a trend. So clever of us — quantity having a quality all its own. |
He said 29 people, mostly civilians, had died in the attack and its aftermath, and 80 had been maimed. Many civilians had been rescued but the corpse count could rise, he added.
Al-Shabaab's military front man said the group was still in control of the Hotel Maka al-Mukarama, which is used by government officials and located on a street lined with hotels, shops and restaurants.
"The government tried three times to enter the building but we repulsed them," said Abdiasis Abu Musab.
Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991, and al-Shabaab is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
-mandated peacekeepers.
The group has also carried out deadly attacks in neighbouring countries contributing to the African Union force, including one on a hotel and office complex in Kenya in January that killed 21 people.
Under President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
, Washington has stepped up attacks against the group, and U.S. Africa Command announced six air strikes it says have killed 52 bully boyz since Feb. 23.
In northern Somalia, a splinter group of former al-Shabaab fighters who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
is also battling the insurgency.
At least 25 people have been killed in the fighting between the two sides this week when al-Shabaab captured three villages from the faction aligned to Islamic State, a military official from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
told Rooters.