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Al Shabaab suicide truck bomber kills 13 people at the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Somalia

A suicide truck exploded around the walls of Jazeera Palace Hotel on Sunday, killing 13 people, including a Chinese ambassador and a Kenyan foreign minister; 21 others are injured.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, an ambulance worker told Reuters they have carried 13 dead people and 21 others who were injured, some seriously.

A Chinese and a Kenyan diplomat were killed, 21 were wounded, and eight rooms were blasted when a suicide bomber jammed a truck full of explosives at the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia on Sunday. The Indian Express reported.

Mohammed Abdi, a police officer observed the damage is big but caused less injurues because the truck bomb couldn't go beyond the walls that lay a few meters from the hotel's perimeter walls.

Though the truck containing explosives inside has been blocked by the walls, the explosion had damaged eight rooms. Guns were fired in the air to disperse the crowd as the paramedics carry the victims to the ambulance.

The Al-Shabaab group, the largest Somalian-based militants took ownership of the attack that destroyed the luxury hotel where diplomatic conferences are always held.

The Al-Shabaab group claimed the incident to revenge for the deaths of dozens of Civilians assaulted by Ethiopian forces which is one of the directives from the African Union.

Earlier, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) had launched an offense called the Operation Juba Corridor. A press release from AMISOM states that the operation intends to disarm Al-Shabaab forces in Somalia's Gedo, Bakool and Bay district.

The hotel is a known venue where the offense from foreign embassies is hosted and coordinated.

Before the attack, Yahoo News recently confirmed the stay of U.S. President Barack Obama in Nairobi, Kenya for three days starting Friday. Kenya, like its neighboring country, Ethiopia, has been combating against Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Shabab. The two countries have troops in Somalia for African-Union and U.S. supporting force with a strong alliance to Washington, D.C. Obama is set to discuss some counterattack measures on the meeting with the president and prime minister of Ethiopia.

Al Shabaab had previously reported to have a series of terror attacks, but the UAE minister said that this will not stop them from backing Somalia.


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