Mogadishu News

Two horrific car bombings have been reported in Mogadishu. More than 100 people have been reported dead in this car blast.

The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group attacked a hotel in the Somali city of Mogadishu and took control of the building.

State news agency SONNA reported that Islamist group al Shabaab had attacked with a car bomb at the hotel entrance and armed militants. A witness, Ahmed Ali, told Reuters: "I heard a huge blast at the hotel, gunfire followed, and then clouds of smoke."

In an audio message, al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed 90 people at the busy Ex-Control checkpoint northwest of Mogadishu.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide attack.

Government spokesman Ismael Mukhtar Omar told Xinhua news agency that a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at the checkpoint on Afgoye road. 

A police officer has said casualties are feared although he did not provide a figure.

A suicide bomber blew himself up inside the main police academy in Somalia's capital Mogadishu today with several people feared dead, police said.

As many as 25 people were on Saturday killed and 30 others injured following a suicide attack outside a popular hotel in Somalia's Mogadishu.

Following the blasts, witnesses reported hearing gunfire and said the entire area around the Nasa Hablod Hotel 2 had been sealed off by security forces

The death toll is expected to rise as the emergency crews is till pulling more bodies from burned cars and demolished buildings

A spokesman for the Aamin Ambulance service said it knew of more than 250 people wounded during the bombings on Saturday.

About two hours later, a second blast took place in the city's Madina district.

Shabaab jihadists attacked a Somali army base today in the southern town of Barire, killing at least eight soldiers and stealing equipment, officials and witnesses said.

The US Africa Command (Africom) said on Friday that the Thursday afternoon precision airstrike occurred near Barawe, Somalia, about 270 km southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.

Ali Jabal was responsible for leading Al-Shabaab forces in the Mogadishu and Banadiir regions in planning and executing attacks.

More than 10 persons died, 20 others were wounded. The explosion destroyed the building of Wadajir District headquarters.

After an 11-hour-long battle, Somalian security forces have finally ended the siege at a Mogadishu restaurant early Thursday.

The Pentagon said the operation occurred at approximately 0600 GMT "in coordination with regional partners as a direct response to Al-Shabaab actions.

Somalia`s president said late Thursday night the country`s army was in "hot pursuit" of Islamist group al Shabaab fighters after the insurgents` assault on a military base in the Puntland region that left at least 38 people dead.