16 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Somalia

A suicide auto bomber crashed his vehicle into a gate outside a hotel frequented by lawmakers in the center of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday and the attack was followed by gunfire, police said.

Two Somali lawmakers are among the dead, the Somali National News Agency reported.

Residents and a Reuters reporter at the scene of the attack said they could still hear sporadic gunfire.

Al-Shabaab conducted an attack on the Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu just hours before Cook’s announcement. Two Somali lawmakers were slain, police officer Ali Hassan Kulmiye told dpa. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said: “We condemn the terrorist attack that killed at least 10 people and injured many others”. The (security) operation is about to end now. “So far the death toll we have is 15 dead and 20 others wounded”. Reports also emerged on Wednesday that the United States targeted a top al Shabaab commander in Somalia in a May 27 air strike.

“We killed 30 apostates including MPs and soldiers. the operation was victorious as planned”, Abu Musab said, adding that they had injured 60 during the assault. The siege at the hotel ended early morning on June 2.

Authorities rescued 10 people and cleared out three of the hotel’s four floors, according to the security agency.

The Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that a drone strike on May 27 in southern Somalia had killed another senior al-Shabaab military leader involved in planning attacks in Kenya and Uganda.

It has frequently carried out attacks in neighbouring Kenya and vowed retribution against “Western crusaders” who it says are guilty of offences against Muslims in Somalia.

A huge auto bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel in the heart of the capital signalled the start of the assault on Wednesday evening, with shooting continuing until Thursday morning when Somalia’s security minister declared the attack over.

The attack began late Wednesday afternoon with a vehicle bomb blast outside the hotel that killed a fourth attacker.

Initial reports claimed that former Justice Minister Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir might have been killed but GO learned that his brother Abdulhamid Sheikh Abdulkadir is one of the terror attack victims. An African Union force has helped the nation’s forces to push the militants from the capital, Mogadishu, since 2011.

Maka Al Mukaram is a major street that links another major artery, K4, to the presidential palace, and it is lined with hotels, restaurants and banks in the heart of the capital.

It’s a tactic Al-Shabaab has used before, such as an attack at another hotel in the Somali capital previous year that left 15 people dead.