DHAKA: Islamist al Shabaab rebels claimed responsibility on Saturday for a bomb that killed six people outside a popular Mogadishu hotel the day before, and said they deliberately targeted government officials and security forces.

Police suspected the militants were behind the blast, the latest in a series of frequent attacks in the Somali capital that highlight the challenge the government faces in restoring order to a nation torn apart by two decades of war and chaos.

‘We were behind the two explosions at the hotel,’ Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told media, reports The Jerusalem Post.

‘We targeted government officials and forces, and killed 15 of them.’

BDST: 1938 HRS, NOV 09, 2013
RoR/RIS