Al Shabaab gunmen attack hotel in central Somalia, seven dead

By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar

MOGADISHU (Reuters) -Al Shabaab gunmen killed at least seven people in an attack on Tuesday at a hotel in a central Somali town where local elders and government officials were meeting to discuss how to act against the Islamist militant group, an elder said.

The al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for the attack in Beledweyne and said it had killed over 10 people. The attackers forced their way in by setting off explosives at the entrance, said a witness, shopkeeper Ali Suleiman.

Al Shabaab frequently launches bombings and gun attacks in the fragile Horn of Africa nation as it tries to topple the government and establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"So far seven people, including clan elders and their guards, all of them my relatives, died in the hotel. Parts of the hotel are ablaze now and it is not clear if the operation is concluded or not," clan elder Abdullahi Fidow told Reuters.

"Some say the fighters are still fighting in nearby buildings. The death toll may rise because of the blasts and shooting by the fighters," he said.

Hours after the initial attack, government forces were trying to flush out Al Shabaab fighters, some of whom had been killed in nearby alleys, said Dahir Amin Jesow, a federal lawmaker from the town, the capital of Hiraan region.

In a separate incident, at least 10 people, including eight Al Shabaab fighters, were killed in fighting in a village in the Middle Shabelle region in southern Somalia, Ali Farah, a military officer in the village, told Reuters.

State-owned Somali National News Agency reported that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was at the airport in Mogadishu to receive the soldiers wounded in the fighting.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Writing by Elias Biryabarema and George Obulutsa; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Ed Osmond and Howard Goller)