SOMALIA: Magadishu International Airport Attacked By Al-Shabaab, Hotel Peace Destroyed

Suicide bombers attacked the main peacekeeping base in Somalia's capital, killing at least three Somali security officers.

Captain Mohamed Hussein said one blast took place as security forces were searching cars at a checkpoint a few hundred metres from the main base of the African Union peacekeeping force, AMISOM.

Another vehicle then drove through towards the base's main gates but came under fire from peacekeepers, police officer Mohamed Ahmed said.

It exploded about 200 metres from the gate. Civilian buildings were damaged.

The powerful blasts damaged the front of the nearby Hotel Peace, though there were no immediate reports of casualties there. The burned-out shell of one of the wrecked vehicles lay outside.

Al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said the fighters had intended to attack the hotel, as African leaders seeking a solution to Somalia's decades-long turmoil had met there last year.

The blast destroyed most of the hotel.

Witnesses said a second explosion and heavy gunfire could be heard at the checkpoint after the attack.

Suspected al-Shabaab assailants fired mortars at Mogadishu International Airport on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding several others.

Residents in El-Qalow located near the Airport have reported hearing the sound of explosions believed to be mortar bombing, the latest in string of attacks in Somalia's capital.

Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said two attackers have been shot dead by the security forces in the area, and seized a minibus mounted in a mortar gun, along with 2 attackers alive.

A vehicle used for firing mortars on Mogadishu Airport in Wadajir district went off shortly after it was captured by the Police and no casualties reported, said a resident.

Two attacker were killed and two are being held alive during a shootout between security forces and suspected al-Shabaab militants who carried out Sunday's mortar attack, he added.

The mortar rounds struck an area, less than one kilometer north of Mogadishu's international airport.

There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties from the mortar attack. Somali Police blamed militant group al-Shabaab, which is aiming to topple the UN-backed Somalia's Federal government.

SOMALIA: Wheelchair Man Was Likely Suicide Bomber On Daallo Flight

A suicide bomber strapped into a wheelchair may have been behind the mid-flight explosion on board the Daallo Airlines plane, officials said.

The alleged bomber then detonated the bomb soon after takeoff, which blew a hole in the Airbus A321’s fuselage but couldn’t not down it.

The bomber, engulfed in flames, was believed to have been sucked out of plane. Witnesses on the ground said they saw a body fall to the ground after the blast Wednesday. The body was recovered near the town of Balad, about 20 miles from Mogadishu.

The suspected terrorist, believed to be part of the Somalia-based Islamic group known as Al-Shabaab, may have faked a disability to con his way through security checks at Mogadishu airport.

U.S. government sources said on Wednesday that initial forensic testing had detected possible traces of the explosive TNT on the aircraft. But one official cautioned that such tests have a high false-positive rate, and further tests are underway.

Daallo Airlines, which did not refer to a blast, said on its website that the “incident” that caused a hole in the fuselage happened 15 minutes into the flight.

Survivor Hassan Mohamed Nur said “I saw the passenger, a man in his early 60s, get sucked out of the plane. There was a huge bang. A big hole appeared in the side of the jet and the man disappeared through it.

“One minute he was sat in his seat, the next he was gone. He’d been sucked out of the plane.

“People were screaming. We all thought we were going to die.”