Somali militants claim responsibility for attack outside Somali hotel: spokesman

FILE PHOTO: Somali security forces detonate a controlled explosion at the SYL hotel after taking it over from Al Shabaab gunmen, who lunched an attack on the hotel near the presidential residence in Mogadishu, Somalia December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Feisal Omar

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack outside a hotel in the town of Galkayo, in the country's Mudug region, which killed at least seven civilians, their spokesman told Reuters.

“We are behind the Galkayo blast, it was a martyrdom suicide car bomber that targeted military officials who had a meeting in that place. We killed many soldiers and injured others," Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said on Sunday.