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Death Toll Rises in Attack on Somali Oceanfront Resort Hotel

Harun Maruf

   The death toll from Sunday's attack and subsequent hours-long siege at
   a beachfront hotel in Somalia has risen to at least 15. The al-Shabab
   militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

   Officials and witnesses told VOA Somali that just before 6 p.m. local
   time, a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Elite Hotel at
   Mogadishu's popular Lido Beach. Moments later four armed gunmen stormed
   the hotel.

   Security forces arrived at the scene immediately after the attack began
   and took over from hotel guards the responsibility for ousting the
   attackers.

   Ismail Mukhtar, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Information, said
   all four of the attackers who stormed the hotel were shot dead.

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