23 dead, more than 30 wounded in Mogadishu hotel attack

Two more blasts were heard, one when an attacker detonated a suicide vest yesterday.

Speaking to the Associated Press by telephone from the scene, Capt. Mohamed Hussein said 30 people, including a government minister, were rescued from the Nasa-Hablod hotel as heavy gunfire continued in the standoff between extremists and security forces.

Three of the five attackers were killed, Hussein said.

The others hurled grenades and cut off the building's electricity as night fell.

The blasts came two weeks after more than 350 people were killed in a massive truck bombing on a busy Mogadishu street in the country's worst-ever attack.

Al-Shabab, Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group, quickly claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack and said its fighters were inside the hotel.

Among the dead were a mother and three children, including a baby, all shot in the head, Hussein said.

Other victims included a senior Somali police colonel, a former lawmaker and a former government minister. Footage from the scene showed twisted vehicles and nearby buildings with only walls left standing.

Mohamed Dek Haji said he survived the bombing as he walked beside a parked car that was largely destroyed by the explosion. He said he saw at least three armed men in military uniforms running toward the hotel after the bombing at its gate.

"I think they were al-Shabab fighters who were trying to storm the hotel," he said, lying on a hospital bed.

Witnesses in some previous attacks have said al-Shabab fighters disguised themselves by wearing military uniforms.

Security officials say yesterday's bomber had pretended his truck had broken down outside the gate. 

Police Col. Mohamed Abdullahi says the bomber stopped outside the heavily fortified hotel and pretended to repair the truck before finally turning it around and detonating.

Al-Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu.

It has not commented on the massive attack two weeks ago; experts have said the death toll was so high that the group hesitated to further anger Somali citizens as its pursues its insurgency.

Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said the new attack was meant to instill fear in Somalis who united after the October 14 attack, marching in the thousands through Mogadishu in defiance of al-Shabab.

Since the blast two weeks ago, the president has visited regional countries to seek more support for the fight against the extremist group, vowing a "state of war."