BREAKING: Intelligence agency foils terror attack on Mogadishu hotel

Intelligence forces Thursday averted a terror attack at a hotel in Mogadishu after they arrested a terror suspect and seized a car laden with explosives barely 24 hours after a similar seizure outside Mogadishu.

Local government spokesman Abdifitah Omar Halane told the media officers from the National Intelligence Security Agency, NISA arrested the man who was set to attack Maka- Al-Mukarama hotel in the central business district, Mogadishu.

“NISA arrested the suspect and carted away the car filled with explosives. The suspect is an Al-Shabaab member who was planning to attack Maka Al-Mukarama hotel,” said Halane.

Halane said local elders and politicians were to meet at the hotel Thursday. The development comes barely 24 hours after NISA seized another car loaded with explosives, guns and rocket propelled grenades in El-Sha biyaha some 17 kilometres west of Mogadishu.

The militant group Al-Shabaab launched a deadly attack at Nasa-hablod hotel late last month killing 17 people and wounding more than 20 others including environment minister Burci Mohamed Hamza.