A truck bomb exploded outside a hotel at a busy junction in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Saturday causing widespread devastation that left at least 20 dead, with the toll likely to rise.
“Initial reports from emergency departments indicate more than 20 bodies picked up off the street and many more are under the wreckage of buildings destroyed by the blast”, said Ibrahim Mohamed, a senior police officer.
Government security official Mohamed Aden said that bombing took place in a busy part of the city.
“There was a huge blast caused by a truck loaded with explosives. It went off at the entrance of a hotel alongside the K5 intersection,” he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the al-Qaeda aligned al-Shabab carries out frequent suicide bombings in the capital and elsewhere as it fights to overthrow the government.