SOMALIA: Hotel Attack, Foreigners Among 26 Killed, Over 100 Wounded By Al-Shabaab

Somalia's security forces shot dead a group of Islamists who tried to storm a popular hotel after detonating car bombs outside it. Authorities said dozens were killed in the explosions and gunfire, with over 100 wounded.

At least 53 people were killed in a series of blasts in Mogadishu, authorities said on Saturday, a day after al-Shabab militants detonated four car bombs and attacked a popular hotel in the Somali capital.

The death toll includes seven terrorists who tried to storm the Sahafi Hotel, which is often visited by government officials.

Some families are searching for their loved ones because they are still missing, as several whose bodies were burned badly beyond recognition were found in civilian vehicles, local hospital director Muhammad Yusuf told the DPA news agency.

Four car bombs exploded outside the Sahafi Hotel, which is located across the street from the Somali Police Force's Criminal Investigations Department, Friday afternoon. After the three explosions in front of the hotel, a fourth blast hit as ambulances rushed to rescue the injured.

The suicide bombers tried to storm through a hole blown into the hotel's wall but did not succeed in entering, said police officer Muhammad Hussein.

Although they failed to access the hotel, the blasts outside the hotel killed many people, said Hussein.

The street was crowded with people and cars, bodies were everywhere. Gunfire killed several people, too.

The al Qaeda-linked militant Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Violence and lawlessness have spiked in the African country since dictator Muhammad Siad Barre's government was toppled in the early 1990s.

Somalia's security forces shot dead a group of Islamists who tried to storm a popular hotel after detonating car bombs outside it.

Authorities said dozens were killed in the explosions and gunfire, with over 100 wounded.


Tourism Observer

KENYA: Tourists In Malindi Were To Be Killed

Kenyan police killed four suspected Islamists in the coastal resort of Malindi on Wednesday after receiving a tip-off that the men were planning to attack a local shopping mall and a police post, the local police chief said.

In the past, such attacks in Kenya have been carried out by al Shabaab, a Somali militant group which wants to punish Kenya for sending its troops into Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force.

Mutava Muchangi, the local police chief, said four men were killed when police raided a residence in Malindi, 120 km (75 miles) north of the port Mombasa, following a tip-off by members of the public.

"The suspects started firing at our officers when they were challenged to surrender, and so we shot and killed them," Muchangi said. The men had also thrown a grenade at police officers but none was injured.

Muchangi said police had recovered a pistol and five grenades. The men had fled from Mombasa during a police crackdown on suspected Islamists with ties to Somali militants, he said.

Al Shabaab, which is aligned to al Qaeda, killed 67 people during an attack on the luxury Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in September 2013. Last April, al Shabaab gunmen killed about 150 people when they stormed Kenya's Garissa University.

The group staged a major attack on a Kenyan base in Somalia last week, claiming to have killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers. Kenyan officials have not disclosed the death toll, but newspaper pictures of coffins bringing back dead Kenyan soldiers from Somalia has ratcheted up pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta.

On Wednesday, al Shabaab published scores of photos purporting to show showing bullet-riddled bodies of Kenyan soldiers killed during Friday's attack, along with looted army equipment. The group says it is holding some Kenyan soldiers captive.

Kenyatta on Tuesday said the Kenyan military was conducting search and rescue operations for troops in the wake of the attack on the Ceel Cadde base, close to the Kenyan border, but did not confirm if any soldiers were being held by militants.

"Their actions have only made us stronger and emboldened us in our determination to defeat them," Kenyatta said in televised address to the nation.

BURKINA FASO: 126 Hostages Rescued,Three Militants Killed At Splendid Hotel Attack

Flames can be seen near the Splendid Hotel.
Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/afp/2016/01/16/07/54/shots-explosions-heard-from-major-ouagadougou-hotel-afp#HSX13YmWq3eFr3uQ.99

A total of 126 people have been freed and three jihadists killed following an assault by security forces on the Burkina Faso hotel and restaurant that were attacked by Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen.

The country’s interior minister said another assault was now ongoing at another hotel.

"One hundred and twenty six people including 33 wounded have been freed," Simon Compaore said

“Three jihadists an Arab and two black Africans were killed.

"The attacks on the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino (restaurant opposite) are over. But an assault of is ongoing at the Hotel Ybi next to the Cappuccino.”

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the hotel attack, which killed at least 20.

Earlier, security forces surrounded the Splendid Hotel ready to retake the building, which is frequented by westerners, the country's foreign minister Alpha Barry said in a telephone interview.

Following a firefight, they were able to initially recover 63 hostages, including the wounded.

"There are some dead but we don't have the numbers. The assault is ongoing with the Burkinabe forces supported by French special forces," communication minister Remis Dandjinou said, adding that among those rescued was labour minister Clement Sawadogo.

The Cappuccino Splendid cafe-restaurant opposite the hotel, also popular with westerners, was also targeted in the terror attack.

Medical personnel moved wounded away from the front of the hotel.

A US defence official said France had requested US intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance support in the city and at least one US military member in Burkina Faso was giving "advice and assistance" to French forces at the hotel.

The government has not ruled out calling for help from French special forces stationed in the country, Mr Barry said in a telephone interview.

The assault in Ouagadougou began mid-evening and by 11pm (2300 GMT) the sounds of gunfire and explosions had died down.

"For the dead, we do not have a precise figure, but there are at least 20 dead," said Robert Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.

"We have had at least 15 wounded with bullet wounds and others who suffered injuries during the panic to escape."

Dr Sangare said one European woman being treated at the hospital told him the attackers appeared to target white people.

The hotel is sometimes used by French troops with Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad and set up to combat Islamist militants across West Africa's vast, arid Sahel region.

This is the first time Islamist militants have carried out an assault in the capital of Burkina Faso.

The attack comes less than two months after a jihadist attack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital Bamako on November 20 in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.

Last month Burkina Faso swore in Roch Marc Christian Kabore as president, completing the troubled West African state's transition after the overthrow of its longtime ruler, Blaise Compaore in 2014 and a failed coup attempt in September.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in October 2014 when Compaore sought to extend his rule, forcing him to step down after ruling the poor, landlocked country with an iron fist for 27 years.

Kabore, 58, becomes only the third civilian president of the nine who have held power since the country's independence from France in 1960.