25 killed in al-Shabab attack in Somali capital

Feb. 20, 2015: Somali rescuers carry away a severely injured civilian from the scene of a twin bombing attack on a hotel in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Twenty five people were killed from suicide attacks at a hotel in the Somali capital on Friday has risen to 25, and 40 wounded, the Somali government said Saturday.

One Islamic extremist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of the Central Hotel, and another went in and blew himself up, a statement from Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke's office said.

Government officials were meeting at the Central Hotel at the time, and the statement says Mogadishu's deputy mayor and two legislators were among the dead. It was unclear whether the government's report of 25 dead included the two bombers.

Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants claimed the responsibility for the attack. Despite the loss of key strongholds in Somalia, al-Shabab continues to stage attacks in the capital and elsewhere.

Somalia's president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack and said it would not derail efforts by his government to restore peace to Somalia which is recovering from decades of war.

This is the second attack on a hotel in Mogadishu in less than a month. On Jan. 22, three Somali nationals were killed when a suicide car bomber blew himself up at the gate of a hotel housing the advance party of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited the country days later.

Al-Shabab controlled much of Mogadishu during the years 2007 to 2011, but was pushed out of Somalia's capital and other major cities by African Union forces.