Somalia’s president survived an assassination bid yesterday, just two days into his new job, when bomb blasts claimed by Islamist rebels rocked the Mogadishu hotel where he was meeting Kenya’s foreign minister.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was unharmed after two blasts went off outside the hotel where he had been staying in Mogadishu, but three soldiers were killed in what appeared to be an attack by multiple suicide bombers.
“There has been a blast around the hotel where the president was.
“The president is safe. All the people who were inside the hotel are safe,” Ali Houmed, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) said.
A police officer said a Ugandan soldier from the regional force and two Somali troops were killed in the attack, adding that initial reports suggested it was carried out by three suicide bombers.
Amisom confirmed in a statement that one peacekeeper had died and three were injured in the attack, which took place a few hundred yards from Mogadishu’s international airport.
Two suicide bombers were shot and blew up while trying to enter the hotel, while a third bomber was shot dead as he tried to climb the compound wall, the statement said.
“The president was in no danger and continued to calmly address the media,” the statement said.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw bits of flesh scattered in front of the hotel gates.
Hassan, whose election on Monday was widely welcomed as a boost to the Horn of Africa country’s peace prospects, was meeting Kenyan Foreign Minister Sam Ongeri at the time of the explosions, Kenya’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The meeting however went on succesfully after the thwarted terrorist attack with the minister Ongeri and his entourage expected back to the country (in Kenya) later this evening,” the statement said.
The Shebab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that has been waging a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s Western-backed government, was quick to claim responsibility for the attack.
“We are responsible for the attack against the so-called president and the delegation,” Shebab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said.