Somalia: Death toll in café bomb explosions rises to 20

At least 20 people died and 17 were wounded after a suicide vehicle bomber and gunmen attacked a beachside restaurant-hotel in the capital of Somalia, authorities said.

The group stormed an African Union military base last week in southern Somalia, killing dozens of Kenyan troops.

“This is a barbaric act and we condemn this act”, government spokesman Abdisalam Aato said.

The security forces took control of the restaurant just before dawn, ending the siege Hussein stated.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke later tweeted about the assault on the restaurant.

Relatives carry away a dead body from the beach following an overnight attack on a beachfront restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia, Jan. 22, 2016.

The Council also paid tribute to the response of the Somali security forces to these attacks, and underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of such reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice.

Al-Shabab said it was behind the attack.

Witnesses said that gunmen entered the restaurant from the direction of the beach. Four of the attackers were killed and one was captured.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has recently stepped up attacks.

The United States has reaffirmed its commitment in supporting Kenya’s fight against Al-Shabaab at a time the country is mourning its soldiers killed in Somalia. Survivors described the gunmen spraying those in the restaurant with automatic weapons.

“We owe our young soldiers a debt of gratitude, one we can scarcely begin to repay; but, we shall honor them and honor them we will”, Kenyatta said.

In a phone conversation earlier, the boy asked his rescuer to promise him that he would never go back to the Beach View restaurant. “The mujahedeen fighters targeted the Lido Beach”, the militants said on the group’s Radio Andalus, calling it a “major operation against the enemy of Allah”.