Car bomb kills 6 near hotel in Somalia’s capital

MOGADISHU / AP

A suicide car bomber detonated near a hotel in Somalia’s capital Monday morning, killing at least six people and injuring four others, police said. The bomber detonated near the Weheliye hotel on the busy Maka Almukarramah road, Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab has often targeted hotels in Mogadishu. A hotel attack in late January killed at least 26 people. In a separate blast on Monday morning, a suicide bomber detonated a minibus laden with explosives at the gate of a military camp south of the capital. The bomber was killed and two people were wounded, said Col. Yusuf Burhan, a Somali military officer. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Somalia’s new Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire condemned the two attacks, saying they were carried out by “bloodthirsty groups.”