{"id":193762,"date":"2016-02-27T06:56:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T06:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=193762"},"modified":"2016-02-27T06:56:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T06:56:38","slug":"al-shabab-kills-nine-in-mogadishu-hotel-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=193762","title":{"rendered":"Al-Shabab kills nine in Mogadishu hotel attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Militants have stormed a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, leaving at least nine people dead, in an attack claimed by al-Shabab.<\/p>\n<p>The attackers set off a car bomb outside the heavily fortified Somali Youth League hotel before moving in.<\/p>\n<p>An explosion also targeted a popular park known as the Peace Garden. Police say the attack is now over after they shot and killed four attackers.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate, is waging an armed insurgency in Somalia.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC&#8217;s Ibrahim Aden in Mogadishu heard a loud explosion on Friday evening, followed by gunfire.<\/p>\n<p>Our reporter says 40 minutes after the first car bomb went off, another explosion of the same magnitude was heard.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Shabab told the BBC they were &#8220;in control&#8221; of the hotel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have attacked the SYL Hotel and we&#8217;ve forced our way into the hotel,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>However, one resident at the hotel told the BBC Somali Service the gunmen had not managed to get inside and had been repelled by security guards.<\/p>\n<p>The hotel, situated near the presidential palace, is popular with government personnel.<\/p>\n<p>Eyewitnesses at the Peace Garden said there were many people in the park at the time of the attack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My sister, class mates and I were taking pictures at the peace garden when the car bomb hit the gate of the park,&#8221; eyewitness Halima Nur told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We all rushed through the back gates,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193763\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193763\" style=\"width: 624px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193763\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Somali-1.jpg\" alt=\"The huge explosion outside the hotel caused extensive damage to nearby buildings.\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193763\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The huge explosion outside the hotel caused extensive damage to nearby buildings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193764\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193764\" style=\"width: 624px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193764\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Somali-2.jpg\" alt=\"A file photo taken on February 17, 2011 shows Islamist fighters loyal to Somalias Al-Qaida inspired al-Shebab group performing military drills at a village in Lower Shabelle region, some 25 kilometres outside MogadishuImage copyrightAFP Image caption Al-Shabab, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, have withdrawn from Mogadishu but still launch attacks there.\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193764\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A file photo taken on February 17, 2011 shows Islamist fighters loyal to Somalias Al-Qaida inspired al-Shebab group performing military drills at a village in Lower Shabelle region, some 25 kilometres outside MogadishuImage copyrightAFP<br \/>Image caption<br \/>Al-Shabab, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, have withdrawn from Mogadishu but still launch attacks there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It is not unusual for al-Shabab to launch attacks in Mogadishu on Fridays, the first day of the Somali weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The operation comes a day after a mortar attack on the presidential palace in Mogadishu in which three people were killed.<br \/>\n&#8211;<br \/>\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Militants have stormed a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, leaving at least nine people dead, in an attack claimed by al-Shabab. The attackers set off a car bomb outside the heavily fortified Somali Youth League hotel before moving in. An explosion also targeted a popular park known as the Peace Garden. Police say the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}