Extremist group claims responsibility for Somali hotel attack
Al-Shabaab, an al Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group, has claimed responsibility for an attack at a Somalia hotel, which is popular with government officials and tourists.
Somali troops took control of the Maka Al-Mukarramah hotel in Mogadishu early on Saturday after extremist gunmen were holed up for more than 12 hours in an attack that has left at least 24 people, including six gunmen, dead.
Colonel Farah Aden, a senior police officer at the scene, told Reuters that Somalia's ambassador to Geneva is among the dead and at least 28 others were wounded.
He added: "Those who died include civilians, hotel guards and government soldiers."
