MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least 13 people were killed in an attack by radical Islamist group al-Shabab on a hotel in the north of Somalia used by Somali and African Union troops, an AU military spokesman said Tuesday.
Somali military officials put the death toll at 21.
About a dozen al-Shabab fighters attacked the hotel in Bulabarde, 115 miles north of Mogadishu, late Monday.
The explosion of a car bomb driven by a suicide bomber was followed by that of another suicide bomber, who wore a vest packed with explosives and managed to enter the hotel.
Somali soldiers responded with machine guns and grenades, prompting a battle that lasted several hours. until midnight.
AU military spokesman Ali Aden Haamud said three Somali soldiers, three AU soldiers from Djibouti and seven al-Shabab fighters were killed. Seven soldiers were wounded and taken to Mogadishu by plane, the spokesman said in the capital.
Somali military officials in the Hiiraan region where the attack occurred told the German news agency dpa that 10 insurgents, eight Somali soldiers and three AU soldiers were killed. More than 20 people were wounded, the officials said.
Most of the wounded were Somali and AU soldiers, including the head of the Somali army in the region. They also included three al-Shabab fighters who were taken as prisoners, the sources said.
No civilians were reported harmed.
The attack followed the capture of Bulabarde by Somali and AU troops last week.
The group claimed an ambush that killed a senior military commander and a soldier near the port town of Bosaso in the semi-autonomous Puntland region on Monday.
The government has stepped up its offensive against the al-Qaida-linked group after it attacked the presidential palace in Mogadishu in February, killing more than 12 people.
Somalia has battled al-Shabab for several years. Its efforts have been backed by the African Union, Ethiopia and Kenya, where al-Shabab attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people in September.
