Death toll in Mogadishu car bombing rises to 52

Around 100 people were injured in the blast which happened near a hotel popular with visitors to the country and international journalists. Mohammed Yusuf, medical director at the Medina hospital in Mogadishu — where many of the wounded are being treated — told CNN five people died in the early hours of Monday morning at the clinic, while two others passed away at another hospital, he said. A former government official, a district police chief, and a journalist are among those wounded in the Friday incident. Five of the attackers attempted to storm the Sahafi hotel but were shot and killed by policemen.Also killed in the attack was Abdifitah Abdirashid, a well-regarded hotel owner who inherited the business from his father. Tragically, the father also died in a similar Al-Shabaab attack in 2015, according to local media reports.Fifty-two Somali officials were rescued from the scene of the attack and from a nearby hotel, police said. Abdiaziz Ibrahim, a former spokesperson for the Internal Security Ministry, who was at the scene, told CNN the attacks lasted 20 minutes and happened "one after the other.""Those who carried out the attack were dressed in police uniform, but they were Al Shabab attackers," he said.Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying it had killed a number of people.Since 2006, the group has carried out repeated attacks in Mogadishu against different targets — killing international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and peacekeepers — as well as Somalia's government and military targets.It wants to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.At least 27 people were killed in Mogadishu by the terrorist group last October after two car bombs detonated outside a hotel near Somalia's presidential palace.

CNN's Anna Cardovillis contributed to the report.

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