Mogadishu, Somali medical sources on Sunday increased the death toll to 58 people killed by last week’s car bombings in the capital Mogadishu, which injured over 100.
Mohamed Abshir of the Aamin ambulance service told Efe news that most victims from Friday’s attack died in hospital and 21 people were killed at the scene.
The Somali militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, in which two car bombs were detonated in front of the upscale Sahafi Hotel at around 4 p.m. local time, followed 20 minutes later by a third bomb in a car in the Hayat Hotel’s adjacent parking lot.
The explosions took place at rush hour on one of the busiest intersections in the Somali capital near the Central Investigation Department headquarters as well as a checkpoint for an entrance to Mogadishu International Airport.
Al-Shabab, a local Islamist group that controls territory in rural central and southern Somalia, has launched frequent attacks of this type, including two separate bomb attacks against government buildings in the Somali capital in September that killed at least 14.
