A Somali cabinet minister with links to Canada is among the 15 killed in an Islamic extremist attack on a hotel in the capital, police say.
Four attackers also died in the assault which was claimed by al-Shabab, Somalia’s militant rebels who are allied to al-Qaida.
State Minister for the Environment, Buri Hamza, was among those killed, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer. Hamza died when his hotel room collapsed Saturday because of the powerful car bomb which extremists used to blast their way into the Nasa-Hablod Hotel.
A biography on the York University website in Toronto said Hamza obtained a master of environmental studies at the school. Two media reports said Hamza lived in the Toronto-area with his family for a period of time. The office of Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion could not immediately comment on Hamza’s Canadian ties.