Somalia

At least 29 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Somalia.

Islamic extremist group al-Shabab have claimed responsibility for the car bomb that went off outside the entrance to the country's biggest port in its capital Mogadishu.

Local police said at least seven people had been injured.

Port employee Mohamed Hussein said gunfire had followed the blast.

Al-Shabaab's insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia's western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state.

Islamist militant group al Shabaab launched a suicide attack on a hotel in the Somalia capital Mogadishu, killing 15 people, police have confirmed.

Police major Ali Hassan said the militants first set off a bomb then stormed inside the Nasahablood Hotel.

There were reports of a heavy exchange of gunfire, but the fighting has now ended.

He added: "We have rescued many people from the back door. Those who died included civilians and hotel guards".

Al Shabaab military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said his group "attacked the hotel which was frequented by the apostate government members."

Investigators believe the Somalia plane bomber had some type of link to the airline or airport staff, according to US officials.

The plane was forced to land after a blast blew a hole in its side shortly after take off in Mogadishu, Somalia, last Tuesday.

A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the bomb on board the Daallo Airlines flight, before being sucked out of the side of the plane to his death.

An explosion which blasted a hole in the side of a Somali plane was caused by a bomb deliberately planted in the aircraft, the country's minister for transport has confirmed.

"We have confirmed that it was a bomb that exploded," Ali Ahmed Jamac told a news conference on Saturday.

"It was meant to kill all aboard."

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing inMogadishu after the explosion on Tuesday.

One elderly man, who is suspected of being the bomber, was sucked out of the side of the plane and died. Two other passenger suffered minor injuries.

Officials have not yet confirmed a motive for the bombing, though it is thought that it may have been the work of Islamist al Shabaab militants.

• Read: Man missing from plane which had hole blown in its side

Al Shabaab is the leading suspect in the apparent bombing of a plane, a US government source has told Reuters.