Al-Shabab Attack on Mogadishu Hotel Kills Twenty-Six

A gun attack and car bomb claimed by Islamist extremist group al-Shabab killed twenty-six people (NYT) at a Mogadishu hotel on Friday and Saturday, officials said. 

Among those killed was Hodan Nalayeh, a prominent Canadian-Somali journalist and the founder of Integration TV.

Among the confirmed dead is also her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, a former minister of Commerce minister of the Jubbaland Federal State of Somalia.

A CFR Backgrounder examines the al-Shabab insurgency in Somalia.