Thaindian News

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (BNO NEWS) — At least 32 people were killed on Tuesday when gunmen from an Islamic insurgent group raided a hotel in Somalia, the BBC reported.

Two men disguised as government soldiers approached the Muna Hotel in Mogadishu near the presidential palace. Carrying handguns, they began firing indiscriminately outside the area and into the hotel lobby. One of them detonated a suicide explosive device in the attack, which killed several people.

Among the reported victims were six members of parliament, five government officials and 21 civilians, including an 11-year-old shoe-shine boy and a woman selling tea in front of the hotel.

On Monday, the Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab had announced a new offensive against the local government, which is backed by African Union troops. al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for another recent attack that left 29 people dead.

Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based group that also claimed responsibility for last month’s deadly triple bomb blasts that killed 76 people in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. In recent months, the group has built Pakistan-style terrorist training camps. A top leader of the organization, Sheikh Muktar Robow, has helped form the group into a global jihadist organization modeled on and swearing allegiance to al-Qaeda, the group behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

In the past 18 months, the relationship between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda has raised red flags at U.S. intelligence agencies, developing a system of training camps. Intelligence officials already have their eye on nearly two dozen individuals from the United States who have been affiliated with al-Shabaab or gone through the training camps.

Al-Shabaab controls large amounts of territories in Somalia, and has been engaged in a battle with Somalia’s transitional government that has U.S. and UN-backed support.