NAIROBI, Kenya — A powerful explosion killed at least four people in the Somali capital Thursday, police said. An Islamic extremist group claimed a Mogadishu hotel was the intended target, but a police officer said militants detonated a bomb while trying to assassinate a judge.
Militants set off a car bomb near the residence of appeals court chief Judge Abshir Omar, and security forces stationed outside the judge’s house fought off gunmen who tried to force their way inside, police officer Mohamed Hussein said.
Eight others were injured in the attack, Hussein told The Associated Press.
Two witnesses said the blast ripped off part of the roof of Omar’s house. The witnesses, shopkeeper Ahmed Mohamed and area resident Fatima Nur, reported hearing gunfire after the explosion and said smoke billowed from the site of the attack.
Al-Shabab, which is considered the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, claimed responsibility for the attack. The al-Qaida-linked group said the Maka Almukarramah hotel, not the judge’s house nearby, was the intended target.
Another witness, Sabir Abdi, said the hotel suffered significant damage and several people inside were injured.
Dozens of cars were on fire along Maka Almukarramah Road, which is in a busy part of Mogadishu where restaurants and hotels are located.
Al-Shabab has targeted the Maka Almukarramah hotel multiple times in the past, including a March 2015 attack in which at least 18 people died.
The militant group, which opposes Somalia’s federal government and wants to impose sharia law, has carried out many deadly attacks inside Somalia and elsewhere in the region, including in neighboring Kenya.
Al-Shabab said it was responsible for an attack on a hotel and shopping complex in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that killed 21 people in January.
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Rodney Muhumuza contributed from Kampala, Uganda.
