Bombs kill at least 17 people in Somali capital Mogadishu

MOGADISHU - Two car bombs killed at least 17 people in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, police said, two weeks after a huge truck bomb killed hundreds of civilians in the city.

Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saturday. A suicide car bomb was rammed into a hotel, Nasahablod Two, about 600 metres from the presidential palace, and then armed militants stormed the building, police said.

A few minutes later, a car bomb exploded near the former parliament house nearby.

Ali Nur, a police officer, told Reuters 17 people, mostly policemen, had died in the blasts.

"Security forces have entered a small portion of the hotel building ... the exchange of gunfire is hellish," he said.

The police personnel who died had been stationed close to hotel's gate. The dead also included a former lawmaker, he said.

Fighting continued to rage inside the hotel after the blast and police said the death toll was likely to rise.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, told Reuters the emergency service had carried 17 people injured from the hotel bombing.

A huge cloud of smoke rose over the scene and a Reuters witness saw over a dozen wrecked cars and bloodstains in front of the hotel. Sporadic gunfire could be heard.

Islamist group al Shabaab, responsible for scores of such attacks in the country's long civil war, said it carried out Saturday's bombings.

"We targeted ministers and security officials who were inside the hotel. We are fighting inside," Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

He said the hotel belonged to Somalia's internal security minister, Mohamed Abukar Islow.

Al Shabaab is fighting to topple Somalia's internationally-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam's sharia law.

Bombs in Mogadishu two weeks ago killed at least 358 people, the worst such attacks in the country's history, igniting nationwide outrage.

Another 56 people are still missing, believed to have been burnt without a trace. Al Shabaab was widely suspected, but has not claimed responsibility after thousands of Somalis poured onto the streets to protest.

Al Shabaab's attacks are growing in frequency and size, as a 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force prepares to begin withdrawing.

In 2016, 723 people died in 395 bomb attacks in Somalia, according to a report produced earlier this year by Nairobi-based think tank Sahan Research.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US judge orders Trump administration to allow entry to immigrant visa holders

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK - A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled President Donald Trump's administration must allow immigrants with initial clearance for legal residency to enter the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations, despite an executive order ban.

Tuesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr follows decisions by federal judges in at least four other states that also limited the executive order Trump issued on Friday.

But it goes further, by focusing on a large group of people from the seven nations of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - the countries targeted in the executive order - who are outside the United States and trying to enter.

In the temporary ruling, Birotte ordered U.S. officials to refrain from "removing, detaining or blocking the entry of plaintiffs or any other person ... with a valid immigrant visa" who is arriving from one of the seven nations.

According to the U.S. Department of State, immigrant visas are the first step to becoming a lawful permanent resident, or a green card holder.

Birotte's ruling does not apply to tourists, students or business travelers with non-immigrant visas.

The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing the order and would have no further comment, a spokeswoman for the agency said in an email.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security cited its policy of not commenting on pending litigation.

Trump's executive order has not only caused consternation for the nations involved but among other Muslim-majority countries, allies such as Germany and Britain and career State Department officials.

Attorney Julie Ann Goldberg, who brought the case on behalf of more than two dozen plaintiffs of Yemeni descent, including U.S. citizens, said they sought the ruling after learning of a move by the U.S. State Department to cancel the immigrant visas of people from the seven countries.

More than 200 people with immigrant visas who left Yemen and are related to U.S. citizens or legal residents are stranded in Djibouti across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Yemen and were barred from flying to the United States, Goldberg said by telephone from Djibouti.

"It's terrible because I have children here who are without their parents," she said.

Some other children in the group are U.S. citizens whose parents were traveling with immigrant visas, she added.

In Boston, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs on Sunday issued a ruling, to last seven days, that barred the detention and removal of approved refugees, visa holders and permanent U.S. residents who entered from the seven countries.

By early Thursday in Djibouti, Goldberg said, no one from the group she represented was being allowed to leave for the United States. She accused the Trump administration of "absolutely ignoring" rulings she believes should allow their departure.

In an email, a State Department official confirmed the agency had provisionally revoked "relevant visas as defined" under Trump's executive order.

The White House said on Wednesday it has issued updated guidance on the order clarifying that green card holders require no waiver to enter the United States.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dozens feared dead in Mogadishu car bomb

MOGADISHU - A car bomb exploded near a busy market in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday killing at least eight people, police said, as medical sources warned the toll could be far higher.

"We have counted about eight civilians so far who were killed in the blast and more than 10 others wounded but the death toll could be higher because the area is a market and it was so densely populated when the blast occurred, most people who were wounded have serious injuries," said police official Ibrahim Mohamed.

Medical sources suggested nearly 30 people had been killed, but this was not confirmed by authorities.

"Our ambulances have collected 13 wounded civilians and 28 dead bodies, the toll could be higher because of the density of the location where the blast occurred," Dr Abdukadir Abdirahman Adem, director of the AMIN ambulance service told AFP.

The blast took place in the densely populated Afisiyone area in southern Mogadishu.

"There was chaos and severed dead bodies strewn around the street, the market was so busy with people shopping when the blast ripped through the area. I saw many dead bodies but I could not count, I have helped collect more than 10 of them," said Abdulahi Osman, who witnessed the blast.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but immediate suspicion fell on the Al-Qaeda linked Islamist group Shabaab, locked in battle against the Somali government and which regularly mounts attacks in the city.

Its most deadly recent attack was in August when a car bomb outside a popular hotel close to the presidential palace left 15 dead.

Despite being driven out of the capital in 2011 by an African Union force deployed in 2007 the group still control vast swathes of outlying rural areas from which they launch guerrilla operations.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Several dead in Somalia hotel attack

At least 15 people died when jihadists exploded a suicide car bomb outside a popular hotel close to the presidential palace in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, police said Wednesday, updating an earlier toll.

"The number of the people who died in the blast reached 15 and 45 others were wounded, most of them lightly," said Mogadishu police chief Bishar Abshir Gedi.

He said civilians and security forces were among the dead in Tuesday's attack.

Several journalists who were at the hotel at the time of the attack were injured.

A vehicle rammed through a checkpoint on Tuesday and was fired on by security forces before it exploded outside the SYL hotel.

An earlier toll stood at five killed and 28 injured.

The hotel is situated close to the main entrance to the Villa Somalia government complex that includes the presidential palace, ministry buildings and residences.

A witness described seeing a large blast and a thick plume of smoke that rose high into the air.

"I saw a car speeding towards the area and huge smoke and fire went up in the sky," said Elmi Ahmed.

The explosion left a scene of widespread damage with a crater in the road, buildings damaged, nearby walls collapsed and debris scattered across the usually busy carriageway.

The Al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab jihadist group said it was responsible for the attack.

The fortified hotel, popular with government officials, business people and visiting diplomats and delegations, was previously attacked in both February this year and January last year.

Last week gunmen detonated a bomb outside a beachside restaurant before storming inside and killing at least seven people.

The jihadists have also staged repeated attacks in neighbouring Kenya and a recent security analysis warned the group was expanding its horizons with cells active in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as well as Somalia.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com