Shabab kill ‘nearly 20’ in Somalia restaurant – Kenya mourns war dead

At least 17 people were killed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu when five extremist mist gunmen set off bombs and stormed a popular beach-front restaurant late on Thursday, Somali police said.

Somali police officer Mohamed Abdirahman said that they killed almost 20 people including women and children and continues to describe the attack as barbaric and brutal against innocent civilians.

Bloomberg noted that law enforcement and government officials in the country believe that the attack was carried out by al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida linked group that has been plaguing Somalia with violence for years.

After identifying the dead, relatives carried bodies away. An unknown number of people are still trapped inside the restaurant, he said.

They have often target hotels and restaurants popular with government officials in Mogadishu.

Among the survivors of al-Shabab’s attack on a beachside restaurant in Somalia’s capital was Mohamed Abdiqani Kheyre.

Somali prime minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke condemned the “savage” attack.

During a ceremony at Nairobi’s Armed Forces Memorial Hospital Friday, Kenyatta expressed condolences and gratitude to the soldiers and families of soldiers who were killed, injured, and missing as a result of the attack on Kenya’s base in El Adde, Somalia. They shouted “Allahu akbar”, the Arabic phrase for “God is great”, as they attacked. This attack by al-Shabab was chillingly low-fi – two auto bombs and a few gunmen managed to hold off police for eight hours.

Eyewitness Abdullah Biid said he was with his friends when the first explosion was detonated.

The Al-Shabaab are fighting to overthrow the internationally supported government in Mogadishu by carrying out regular attacks in the capital.

The Lido Seafood restaurant was littered with bloodstained, overturned chairs, tables, shoes and bullet casings, the walls scarred from bullet impacts and blackened with soot.