10 killed as Shabab targets high-profile hotel

Some Cabinet Ministers were among the injured.

Security forces assist Somali MP Abdalla, who was wounded following a car bomb claimed by al Shabaab militants outside the president's palace in the country's capital Mogadishu on Tuesday.

At least 10 people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Tuesday when a car bomb claimed by al-Shabab exploded outside the Presidential Palace and also damaged two nearby hotels.

Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir said that a meeting of security officials was under way inside one of the hotels, the SYL, at the time of blast and that one Minister and some state radio journalists were injured.

The hotel is frequented by government officials and police said it believed the facility was the likely target. The SYL and another hospitality facility were partially destroyed by the blast, Major Mohamed Ali, a police officer, said.