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Al Jazeera’s Peter Greste, reporting from the Jazeera Palace hotel in Mogadishu, where the attack occurred on Wednesday, said that two explosions had taken place, and that gunfire had erupted immediately after the first blast.
A bomb exploded outside the gate, followed by an exchange of fire. Initial reports indicated that at least three people had been killed
Three soldiers, one Ugandan from the African Union force and two Somalis, were killed, a police officer said. The two suicide bombers were also killed.
The attack was an assassination attempt on Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the newly elected Somali president, Greste reported. Mohamud and Sam Ongeri, the Kenyan foreign minister, escaped unharmed.
“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,” Colonel Ali Houmed, a spokesman for the African Union force in Somalia, said.
Mohamud was elected on Monday, beating Sheik Shariff Sheikh Ahmed who was seeking re-election after leading a transitional government for three years.
He had been addressing a joint press conference with Ongeri when the attacks took place yesterday.
“First and foremost we will address the security issue. Priority number one is security and priority number two and priority number three,” Mohamud said moments after the blasts, continuing for several minutes before being whisked away by security staff.
The new president is expected to form a fully functioning government for Somalia which has not had one since 1991, when a longtime dictator was overthrown.
Al-Shabab, a radical Islamist militia that is waging a war against the Somali government, opposed Mohamud’s election saying it had been manipulated by the west.
The group claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday, according to a spokesman.
“We are responsible for the attack against the so-called president and the delegation,” spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said. — AP
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