Police inspect assembled explosives, grenades and assorted weapons in the coastal city of Mombasa yesterday. Kenyan police have arrested two men suspected of links to a Somali Islamist militant group after they were tracked and found to have two large bombs that may have been intended for use in the area of the port city, a senior police officer said.

Reuters/AFP/Mogadishu

A Shebaab suicide bomber rammed a car into the gates of a hotel used by African Union peacekeepers in central Somalia before gunmen sprayed the building with bullets, killing many, the Al Qaeda-linked militant group and residents said.
The night-time attack happened in Bulobarde, abandoned by Shebaab last week as African troops advanced on the town in a new offensive aimed to flush the militants from the area.
Bulobarde’s streets were mostly deserted yesterday.
Local elder Hassan Nur said his nephew, the military commander of Hiran province, and a local government official were among the dead.
“Most of the troops and civilians inside the hotel died or were wounded. We couldn’t count how many died because AU and Somali forces swarmed all over the place,” Nur told Reuters.
“There was a suicide attack involving terrorists at a hotel in Buulo Burde,” security official Sulieman Adam told AFP, of the attack that took place in the early hours of yesterday morning. “Four of the attackers were also killed.”
AU envoy to Somalia, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, condemned the “cowardly attack” and confirmed that both AU troops from Djibouti and Somali troops had been killed, but without giving exact numbers.
AU soldiers, who are fighting the Shebaab alongside Somali government troops, captured the small town from the Islamists last week.
The AU force, known as AMISOM, said it stood with “the fallen soldiers” but did not say how many had been killed.
“These are hit and run attacks ... they are losing ground, but are trying to terrorise the people,” AU force spokesman Ali Houmed said.
AMISOM launched this month a new push to drive Shebaab from southern and central Somalia.
Shebaab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu Musab claimed responsibility for the attack, boasting of killing senior officials and telling AFP that the Shebaab were still in control of parts of the town.
Residents said that at least eight people were killed in the attack, but there was no official toll.
“A suicide bomber drove his car packed with explosives into the hotel, and there was a big explosion, and then gunfire afterwards,” said resident Moalim Mohamed Adan.
Abdirahman Qalafe, who lives in a nearby village, confirmed the toll of eight, adding he had seen a military helicopter evacuate the wounded.
“The helicopter landed and took around 11 wounded people away,” he said.
The militants, who seek to impose their version of Islamic law, were driven out of bases in the capital more than two years ago, but have continued to control swathes of countryside and smaller towns, which they use as launch pads to carry out attacks at home and abroad.
A Shebaab spokesman said two gunmen sprayed the hotel with bullets immediately after the initial explosion, killing at least 32 soldiers.
In the past, Shebaab has often exaggerated death tolls while government officials have downplayed losses.
Nur reported hearing a prolonged gun battle and later seeing the bodies of five militant fighters being dragged through a street early yesterday, indicating more rebels were involved in the raid.
Other residents confirmed hearing sustained gunfire.
Yesterday’s strike by Shebaab followed an attack on Monday on a military convoy near the capital Mogadishu, which killed four Somali soldiers, according to an army captain.
Regional nations and the West worry that if Shebaab is left to thrive in remote territories, it could once again plan strikes beyond Somalia’s borders, such as the attack on a Kenyan shopping mall last year that killed 67 people.
Shebaab said it carried out that attack to punish Kenya for sending troops to Somalia.
Kenya said it had arrested two suspected Shebaab militants on Monday with bombs that might have targeted the coast popular with tourists.
In Uganda, the police warned that Shebaab was planning attacks on fuel trucks in transit or at fuel depots or stations in the country.
Authorities in Kampala, where Shebaab killed 77 people when they bombed crowds watching broadcasts of the 2010 World Cup final in Johannesburg, said that they would now escort trucks in some areas.
Bulobarde lies 210km north of Mogadishu, where Shebaab has carried out raids following a similar pattern of a car bombing followed by an assault by gunmen.
Helicopters ferried away military casualties, said local shopkeeper Ismail Gedi, adding that he believed the AMISOM forces in Bulobarde were from Djibouti, one of six contributing nations.
The Bulobarde strike underscores the difficulties AMISOM and the fragile Somali government face in quashing the stubborn seven-year long Islamist insurgency, especially as a deteriorating security situation risks alienating pockets of the Somali population.
“AMISOM has just irritated Shebaab instead of either leaving them alone or eliminating them,” Nur said.
The president of the semi-autonomous Puntland region told Reuters this month that he feared the military purge risked squeezing the militants north into his territory, which has largely escaped the Islamist insurgency.